


I Asked a Thief…

by Lisa_Lisa



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Police, Attraction, Banter, Blow Jobs, Bottom Nero (Devil May Cry), Bottom V (Devil May Cry), Canon-Typical Violence, Cat and Mouse, Dates, Dirty Talk, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut, F/F, F/M, Falling In Love, Flirting, Getting Back Together, Grinding, Handcuffs, Happy Ending, Heartbreak, Jealousy, Kissing, M/M, Making Out, Masturbation, Minor Injuries, Misunderstandings, Morning After, Mutual Pining, Opposites Attract, Possessive Behavior, Reconciliation, Reconciliation Sex, Riding, Rimming, Romantic Comedy, Rough Sex, Sexual Tension, Smut, Surprise Kissing, Switching, Teasing, Theft, Top Nero (Devil May Cry), Top V (Devil May Cry)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-09
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-01-26 03:04:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 137,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21367135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lisa_Lisa/pseuds/Lisa_Lisa
Summary: Nero is a hardworking police officer about to become a proper detective when, one night, he accidentally runs into V, the so-called ‘Poetic Burglar’ that has decided to act in Red Grave.With his promotion at stake after having allowed the thief run away in a difficult to forgetfirst encounter, a game of cat and mouse begins between Nero and V, together with the blooming of a strong attraction that none of them are ready to deal with.
Relationships: (background) Lady/Lucia, Dante & Nero (Devil May Cry), Dante/Trish (Devil May Cry), Nero & Vergil (Devil May Cry), Nero/V (Devil May Cry)
Comments: 207
Kudos: 234





	1. Coincidences don't exist

**Author's Note:**

> Weeell, once again, initially I was considering to wait until my other Nero/V fic was finished, but since that fic is rather plot/canon heavy I decided to have a lighter story that I can alternate to write :)
> 
> I got this idea from the ‘Freeze’ prompt in inktober, which is necessary to read since it is basically the [prologue](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20845238/chapters/49664675) of this story, so if you haven’t, please, check that first :)
> 
> Needless to say, this story will be an AU where all the DMC characters are human. I will do my best to write the police situations as ‘credible’ as possible, but I warn beforehand that my knowledge in the matter until writing this was limited to what is seen in series and movies, so I apologize in advance for all the inaccuracies I may write along the story, since my main focus will be to make Nero and V get together while the first suffers a little in the process xD
> 
> And that’s all! I have estimated that this story will have around 10-12 chapters and I promise that this time the slow burn will be practically non-existent. I doubt someone can resist a hot, thief V for long after all muehehe.
> 
> **EDIT:** As usual, my estimations suck and now the number of chapters is 18... I HARDLY doubt I reach 20 but at this point I'm not gonna say anything ^^U
> 
> **EDIT 2:** Aaand I reached 20, so for sure this is the LAST time I make any initial estimations xDD

By when Nero managed to break free from the pipeline where that bastard had chained him, it was past 7.40 a.m. Thanks to the strict working schedules established by the Chief of the Police Department in Red Grave all the officers that weren’t in their workspaces at 8.00 exactly would be severely sanctioned, a punishment that, in Nero’s case, usually meant a provisional pay cut.

Because of a couple of improper behaviors (one of them involving an angry shopkeeper claiming than Nero had caused more damage in his shop than the robber he went to catch) Nero’s payment had been drastically reduced already the past month, so he decided to pay for a taxi in order to make sure to reach the police station in time.

That meant that he hadn’t got _any _sleep in 24 hours straight with the exception of the 20 minutes nap that he took during the ride. At least he had learned the lesson: _never_ trust his coworkers when suggesting to go for some ‘calm drinks’ in the middle of the week.

Nero was awakened brusquely by the unsure voice of the driver announcing they had reached their destination. Nero grunted with annoyance, handling the man the money before abandoning the car. He closed the door of the taxi with more force than he intended, and although he apologized to the man, the frown that was still in his face mixed with his clenched jaw made the guy nod hastily before leaving straight away.

He sighed, climbing up the small set of the stairs leading inside the building while innerly praying that the day was an easy one, because poor of the bastard who decided to piss him off in his current mood.

After accepting the greeting of the officer sitting behind the reception with a distracted movement of his hand, Nero entered the [office](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a7/bc/06/a7bc067294b8c60771770d9fc4bb35e5.jpg). The fact that there were several officers sitting at their desks already warned Nero that he had arrived to the office some minutes late, so he took a mental note of speaking to the officer in charge of the registers so that it made a little modification in his entry. After all Nero despised corruption as much as any legal person, but that day he would honestly consider the option of falling into the dark side of bribes if that meant _not _dealing with the Chief’s reproaches regarding his ‘lack of seriousness’.

“Wow. It seems someone had a wild night~.”

The woman who had talked while he approached his desk was Lady: his supervisor (theoretically) and his future companion in a relatively short period of time if he managed to keep his temperament in check to finally be promoted to detective. She was sitting at the desk adjacent to his with her legs propped up on the table, reading a surely delayed report while blowing decently big bubbles with the gum she was chewing.

Her playful tone of voice let Nero know what she was suggesting with that comment, making him snort.

“Yeah, you wouldn’t guess how much”, he answered grumpily while removing his jacket.

His answer made Lady’s smile widen. She changed her posture in order to cross her arms on the desk while leaning forward, the action making her cleavage more noticeable in a recurrent gesture that had made more than a police officer gulp and suffer from cold sweat, Nero himself included when he started working with the woman before learning he had zero chances with her.

“Oh, I can guess”, she said in a lower tone so that only Nero heard her, “you’re wearing the same clothes than last night, so come on, spit it out: who is she? Or maybe it’s a he?”

When hearing the last part of the sentence Nero couldn’t help to think that, if the situation had been way, _way _different and they had met under other circumstances, probably he wouldn’t have minded to involve himself with that masked man, since even with half of the face covered there was no doubt that the man was hell of attractive, with that voice that promised to be able to push all his right buttons, and those lips who had felt surprisingly good despite the brief contact, and those sharp green eyes who probably were the most stunning Nero had the chance to see ...

...And okay, maybe going to work hadn’t been a good idea and he should have taken the day off with the excuse of being sick instead, because definitely thinking in those terms about the bastard who had made him spend _four damn hours_ rubbing his handcuffs against a fucking pipeline to break free wasn’t the most normal thing to do.

Although thinking about it logically, there were a lot of hot bastards out there, so as long as Nero still felt that urge of beating the crap out of the guy in case of meeting again as retaliation for his complete lack of sleep, there wasn’t anything wrong with admitting that the guy was kind of his type.

“Hehehe, so am I right?”

Nero didn’t realize he had got lost in his thoughts until hearing Lady’s teasing comment, which now sounded even more convinced about him having had one hell of a night.

Actually, perhaps the correct thing would be to mention something about the previous night incident so that that jerk didn’t have the chance to act like that again, but truth was that Nero only had a probably fake clue about the man’s name together with vague idea about how the man looked, which was all insufficient in order to properly identify him.

And sure, Nero could actually denounce the guy for rappelling a building (which was fucking suspicious by the way), or for resisting the authority, or for threatening him with a gun (_his_ gun, he rectified with annoyance to himself). Actually, he had a bunch of motives to talk about it, now that he thought about it. But while interacting with the man the feeling he had got from him was that the guy was just playing with him, without having the intention of actually _hurting_ him, so eventually Nero decided that, as pissed off as he felt for being so easily fooled, it was better if he kept silent.

After all, the last thing he needed was that the whole department (and specially the Chief) discovered that a masked, _skinny _freak had managed to disarm him _and _tie him up with practically no effort. He didn’t want to risk to wait another year to be promoted because of a stupid mistake that probably didn’t have more relevance than his wounded pride.

“Okay, I have a theory”, Nero grunted while dropping on his chair, indicating Lady he didn’t want to hear it, but of course the woman ignored him and kept talking, “I think that after you left the bar, you hooked up with someone and that’s why you didn’t get any rest!”

“Wait, who hooked up with whom?”

Nero closed his eyes when hearing that masculine carefree voice coming from behind, just before feeling a couple of hands settling heavily on his shoulders.

“So you finally stopped mourning over Kyrie?”, Dante shook his shoulders briefly before approaching his desk with his usual lackadaisical attitude, “that’s good. I mean, she was a nice girl, but if you wanna know my opinion—”

“I don’t.”

Dante barked a laugh when hearing his almost threatening tone, rolling back his shoulders to also remove his coat while offering Nero a lopsided smile.

“Come on, don’t be mean”, Dante crossed his arms while leaning against his own desk, “I have the right of worrying about my nephew’s romantic life.”

“Yeah, well, you can worry all you want but we aren’t fucking discussing it”, Nero snapped, thinking for hundredth time that working with family had more disadvantages that benefits, “and now if you don’t mind I still have work to do because _someone _decided we could leave sooner yesterday to ‘chill out’.”

Lady had the nerve to chuckle while being completely unbothered by his accusation, so Nero, being used already to be ignored like that, simply exhaled a defeated sigh and opened the bigger and bigger tower of reports that he still had to complete.

Nero really tried to finally get some work done, but after a couple of hours of extremely boring paperwork he was subtly dozing off by leaning his forehead on his hands, waiting for the time of having to patrol while hoping it would help him to get his act together.

He had just snored softly without noticing, being Lady in the process of popping an especially big gum bubble to wake him up while Dante recorded the whole thing from his table, when the familiar sound of firm heels sounded at the other side of the door. Automatically, everyone (except Dante) pretended to be doing something while Nero woke up brusquely, in the precise moment in which the door of the adjacent room opened and Trish, the Captain of the Department, entered.

The woman, [dressed](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/1e/36/f3/1e36f3549c53e52b0e8394c19574f7f1--black-pencil-skirts-black-skirts.jpg) impeccably as usual while carrying a folder against her chest, walked through the office until stopping between Dante and Lady’s desk, moment in which she looked at the detectives alternatively. She was opening her mouth to speak when Dante talked in a way too cheery tone.

“Hey, love. What brings you here? Missing me already?”

Nero was about to facepalm the same as Lady when hearing his uncle’s comment, which made Trish offer Dante a dangerous charming smile. Definitely, if that was Dante’s way of trying to get back together with the woman, he was doing it _terribly_.

“Well, I was about to assign you a new case”, Trish began to say with a casual tone that made Dante’s expression pass from seductive to expectant as his eyes illuminated, “but if you prefer to keep searching for Mrs. Taylor’s Pomeranian, I will give it a second thought and assign someone else—”

“No no no no. I’m sorry, babe—I mean, _sir_. Please, I will do _anything_ not to continue with that case.”

Dante’s honest begging tone caused Lady and Nero to muffle a laugh because the adult man’s desperation was quite funny to witness, especially because a hint of a smile was playing at Trish’s face even if Dante was busy enough panicking to notice. It was really a pity that his uncle and the Captain had broken up (Nero was sure that because of his uncle), because they had always made a rather hilarious couple, especially when Trish got angry with him and assigned the most boring cases that everyone wanted to avoid, like the one Dante was currently suffering.

“Well, it is nice to know you are ready to give your all”, Trish continued while Dante nodded effusively, “because the Poetic Burglar has just acted in Red Grave.”

For the way the people surrounding them momentarily stopped doing their tasks to listen, the way Dante’s eyes opened widely and how Lady exhaled a loud ‘_No shit, really?!_’, Nero deduced that the mentioned person was pretty famous, which surely should have warned him about how _not _to act next.

“Uhm...who?”

Nero felt everyone’s eyes digging on him.

“Kid, you don’t know who he is?”, Dante said in disbelief before exhaling a laugh, “damn, it’s a luck that your dad isn’t around or you would have been fired.”

Nero was about to snap Dante not to call the Police Chief _that _when being in the office when Trish continued talking with a calm, polite tone.

“The Poetic Burglar is a thief that has been acting during the past two years in several cities. He is well known for stealing books of great value, leaving a poem behind as a signature.”

“That’s where his nickname comes from”, Lady intervened rather unnecessarily, causing Trish to look patiently at her before continuing.

“Needless to say, up till now no one has been able to even get a glimpse of him and much less to catch him, so since this case finally falls under our jurisdiction the Chief is extremely interested in bringing him to justice.”

“Of course he is”, Dante snorted, “my brother’s craving for popularity is well known.”

“I will be sure to transmit that message to him.”

“What? Come on, sweetheart— _sir_, i-it was a joke!”

“And what has the burglar stolen this time?”, Lady inquired with interest, making Trish shift her interest from her former (sweating) boyfriend to consult briefly the report.

“The first exemplar of ‘_The Canterbury Tales_’, valued at $7.5 million dollars.”

“Holy fuck”, Nero exclaimed while Lady whistled, which provoked Trish to be about to smile again before resuming her explanations.

“Exactly, it is quite a sum. Right now Morrison is already talking to the owner of the book, which apparently was stolen early this morning. In the meantime…”, Trish surprised Nero by looking first at Dante and then at _him_, “...I would like you to gather more information about this book, since it is not quite clear that the owner acquired it by lawful means and we need to clarify its origin before proceeding further.”

“But you don’t have anyone else to do that?”, Dante inquired, obviously disappointed for the task, “I mean, that’s stuff for the desk officers.”

“You are correct, it would usually be”, Trish admitted, “but since we have the luck of you having certain contacts in the art world, I think that recurring to them directly will save us some work.”

A knowing expression appeared in Dante’s face while Nero looked alternatively at his uncle and Trish, not understanding what they were talking about.

“Okay then, leave it to me”, the older man stood up and tilted his head a little to the side to point towards the door while looking at him, “come on, kid. We have work to do.”

Nero rapidly stood up, happy for being involved in such a big case even if his job would merely consist of observing Dante do most part of the work. However, even if he would never _ever _admit it aloud to the man, he was looking forward to do it, because despite his too flippant appearance his uncle was a really good detective from whom he had learned a lot. In fact, he had the theory that the only reason why his uncle hadn’t been promoted yet was his laziness and his incapability to treat with his superiors without pissing them off (something that Nero hoped learned to do someday because he was really similar to Dante in that aspect).

“Hey, wait a minute!”, Lady protested while seeing them begin to walk towards the door, “why the newbie goes and not me?”

“Well, perhaps because I’m still waiting _that _report since two weeks ago”, Lady gulped loudly when Trish’s tone didn’t lose softness but managed to still sound menacing, “so I greatly recommend you to finish it by tomorrow at last if you do not want me to talk the Chief about it.”

“Roger, sir!”, Lady said promptly, “thanks for the extra motivation. You will have the report in your desk this same morning—”

“And scarying the new officers to do it for you is absolutely forbidden.”

“Uhm...hehe, then do you think you could give me a day more to—”

“Tomorrow _without fail_.”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

When seeing Lady stressed expression Nero couldn’t help to feel a little of pity for the woman, even if she had probably brought it to herself. He muttered a soundless ‘good luck’ that she answered with a resigned thumb up gesture and was about to leave the room after Dante when the man talked.

“By the way, where did the burglary happen?”

Nero was about to pass by Dante to see if this time he could do the driving when Trish answered, causing him to freeze in place because the street that she had mentioned was no other than…

“Oh, that’s around the area where we went for drinks!”, Lady exclaimed from her desk, looking at Nero with a smile, “hey, maybe we crossed paths with the thief without noticing! That would be funny.”

Nero gulped thickly, forcing a chuckle when hearing the woman’s comment while feeling his heart beating faster because fuck, could he be _that _unlucky to have met _THE _thief the previous night and let him go?

Nah, it couldn’t be. That kind of stuff just happened in movies or books. In real life situations coincidences actually existed, so he was about to follow Dante out of the room while forcing himself to stop stupidly overthinking when he remembered something at the last moment.

“Wait, I need to get a new couple of handcuffs.”

Dante looked at him with confusion.

“Why? Did you lose yours?”

After considering his options, Nero decided that Dante's theory was better than saying that they broke so that Lady didn’t—

“Ohoho, so the night got _that _wild?”

Nero closed his eyes while Lady began to laugh and Trish looked between them with confusion, insulting his naivety for assuming that Lady wasn’t going to dirtily misinterpret everything as usual.

* * *

All the pity Nero could have initially felt about Lady for being buried in paperwork was forgotten when Dante spent the entire trip to the art gallery trying to make him confess how he had lost those handcuffs. Fortunately, the fact that the place wasn’t very far away combined with his uncle’s excessive speed while driving made the interrogation be decently short.

“You know, kid, we used to talk a lot more when you were younger”, Dante commented after parking the car in front of the glassed doors of the art gallery, exiting by his side while Nero stepped on the sidewalk, “and now that brat that tirelessly asked me to tell him police stories is all cold with me. It breaks my heart, you know?”

Nero exhaled a long sigh, looking at Dante with a deadpan expression even if a smile was about to escape him, as every time that his uncle got his ‘nostalgic mode on’, as he internally called it.

“That kid is 24 already, old man, and like hell if you are going to emotionally blackmail him to tell you stories about his sex life.”

Dante began to laugh while closing the car, joining him in the sidewalk to enclose an arm around his shoulders.

“If you weren’t so secretive, I wouldn’t ask that much”, he stopped before entering, offering Nero a serious look over the sunglasses he was wearing, “but if there was something wrong, you’d tell me, right?”

Nero suppressed in time a gulp, meeting Dante’s light inquisitive gaze head on.

“Yeah, sure, but there isn’t. I just couldn’t sleep last night after being up until late, that’s all.”

Dante hummed to himself before removing his glasses with his other hand to point at Nero with them.

“Well, I know you’re hiding something _but _maybe it's my police intuition going overboard as usual sooo I won’t insist more. For now.”

Nero rolled his eyes while Dante finally released him, though he was innerly glad that his uncle dropped the topic (by the time being).

Once inside the [gallery](https://russell-collection.com/wp-content/uploads/slide-2.jpg), Nero began to look around at the modern pictures and sculptures that were exhibited while Dante approached the reception and asked to talk directly to the owner. Nero was still wondering how his uncle had come to have contacts with someone in the art world, since (unlike his father) Dante’s hobbies weren’t that refined when the owner of the gallery appeared, and Nero understood everything:

“Welcome, sir”, the owner, a voluptuous, red-haired woman dressed in a long, dark dress welcomed Dante with a sensual voice and tone that hinted she knew his uncle already, “is this your first time here?”

Dante smiled, allowing the woman to approach him and rest her hands on his shoulders as he placed them on her hips.

“Yeah, it is. You’ll be nice to me, won’t you?”

The woman chuckled

“Of course I will. I love to introduce virgin men to the enthralling world of art.”

There was a limit of how much embarrassing flirting Nero could witness without puking, especially if his uncle was involved, so he cleared his throat loudly, making the ex-lovers focus on him.

“Good morning”, Nero showed his badge hanging from his belt by opening a little his jacket, “sorry to interrupt, but we need to ask you a couple of things.”

The woman looked at Dante with an amused smile.

“Your son?”

Dante chuckled, separating a little from her.

“My nephew. Can’t you see he hasn’t inherited my attractiveness?”

Nero decided that since Dante allowed himself to flirt while being on duty, he could definitely show his middle finger to his uncle without feeling guilty about it.

From then on Dante adopted a more professional attitude while addressing the woman (Nevan was her name, Nero learned then), although his uncle’s eyes kept lingering through the woman’s provocative outfit, thing that made her smirk even more pleased. Well, no doubt that his uncle wasn’t going back together with Trish if he behaved like that. Perhaps that was the reason why Dante wanted to know more about his romantic life: at that rate, Nero would have to give his uncle advices instead of the other way around, he thought with irony.

After Dante repeated the information Trish had told them, Nevan hummed to herself, leaning a manicured hand against her chin while getting lost in her thoughts before talking.

“If I am completely honest, antique books are a little outside my area of expertise. However, I think my assistant could provide you with more useful information. Would you like to talk to him?”

“That would be helpful. Thank you, love”, Dante said with a smile, causing Nero to look at him with an ‘_Really?_’ expression that made Dante exhale a confused ‘_What?_’ while Nevan approached the reception to talk to the woman sitting there.

“Please, tell my assistant to join us for a moment.”

They didn’t have to wait much, since Nero had barely taken one of the brochures placed on the reception table about a special exhibition that was going to take place the first week on June, in a week more or less, when a new set of steps announced the presence of Nevan’s assistant

“Have you called for me, Miss Nevan?”

For second time that day, Nero froze when hearing _that_ voice that made the back of his hair stand. With his mouth and eyes opened more Nero turned his face in order to face the newcomer:

Nevan’s assistant was a thin, lean man on his late twenties dressing in a gothic style. Several tattoos were covering his forearms, which were partially exposed thanks to the rolled up sleeves of the black, patterned [t-shirt](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e9/8f/d3/e98fd328e3fe34df53fb5c5cdd36ef05.jpg) he was wearing, and also his neck, around which a tooth pendant had been tied up. His black wavy hair was pushed up in a bun that tried to look messy but that was _too perfectly_ messy to be casual, with some loose locks strategically framing his sharp face. And finally, what made Nero’s heart stop for a moment, the man’s familiar plump lips were half-opened in surprise, matching perfectly the light stupor present in his green eyes.

Nero stared at the assistant in utter astonishment for some seconds, not knowing how to react. And then, before he could even hold them back, two angered, simple words escaped his mouth while signaling at the man with an accusing finger.

“You_ bastard._”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second-first encounter they weren's expecting xDD  
Next chapter we will also have V's POV :P


	2. Second-first encounter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, this chapter is entirely from V's POV :P

When the phone of the office sounded, V was in the process of reviewing the last shipments that had been sent to the gallery, while taking note of the people who had donated their personal art for the exhibition taking place in a week. That way Nico could investigate them further, since it wasn’t the first time that the woman managed to find a nice connection with other owners of potential profitable items, so it was definitely deserving some checking. 

After finishing writing the last name in the email he was sending to one of Nico’s multiple provisional accounts, he picked up the call. He was surprised when the woman of the reception let him know that Nevan required his presence, because as far as she knew the woman was going to be reunited most part of the morning, so the motive had to be quite important. 

V made sure to close the private navigation tab of his computer and delete the browser history (practices that Nico had insisted him to do ad nauseam) and abandoned the office, closing the door behind him. He then climbed down the stairs leading to the main floor, where Nevan was speaking to a man on his forties while a younger one was leaning over the reception with his back turned to him. He briefly thought to himself that the older man was quite attractive before his mind travelled to the hot officer from the previous night, since the other man was quite similar in complexion. He was even wearing rather similar clothes. 

The thief hadn’t dared to tell Nico about that little incident yet. He knew he should if he didn’t want to suffer the consequences of Nico learning about it without him telling her, which depended on the woman’s mood and therefore variated from shouting at him angrily to sulking by saying he didn’t trust her despite all the times she had his life in her hands (literally). So, he also took a mental note of saying Nico that same afternoon before finally addressing his boss.

“Have you called for me, Miss Nevan?”

The woman turned towards him when hearing his call for attention, while displaying a smile that some people could consider disturbing but that V believed would have managed to captivate him if his preferences were not exclusively masculine.

Nevan was about to speak when two things happened at the same time: first, when the woman changed position, V’s eyes immediately went to the badge that the older man was wearing hanging from his belt, almost in the exact same way than the officer of the previous night; and second, that the man who brusquely stopped leaning over the counter in order to look at him was no other than _ the officer of the previous night_.

As he fought against the stupor that threatened to show in his factions, V thought that for once lady luck had gone against him, going as far as bringing the only stranger that _ might _be able to discover who he was directly to his door.

V was aware that the chances of him having succeeded in keeping a completely imperturbable expression when recognizing the guy (who, by the way, was even hotter in the daylight with those astonishing blue eyes and that strong jaw) were rather low. Also, a light nervousness settled within him when detecting a trace of recognition in the officer’s eyes, not to mention that the state of stupefaction that the man was going through was even bigger than the one he was trying to conceal.

However, in the hypothetical case of the officer suspecting him, he was pretty convinced that the chances of the man saying something about it were nonexistent, since the man could not have a single clue about...

“You_ bastard. _”

...and like that, V learned soon that expecting to receive the usual behavior from the officer was pointless.

V didn’t know who was more surprised about the young officer (Nero was his name?) snapping those words: him, whose eyes opened even more when hearing the completely unexpected outburst, Nevan, who whispered a surprised ‘_ Oh, my _’ while placing an affected hand against her chest that contrasted with the amusement present in her expression, or Dante, who probably strained his neck while staring at the younger frowning officer. Even the receptionist had stopped paying attention to the call she was attending to witness the scene, before remembering there was someone at the other side of the line that forced her to focus again after muttering a stuttering apology. 

“Kid, what the hell?”

The older man talked in a tone that sounded a little reproachful but overall confused, and which caused Nevan to let out one of her mischievous chuckles before fixing her eyes first on V and then on Nero again.

“Oh my, could it be that you already share a story together?”

“No, we do not.”

“Hell, we do.”

They talked at the same time, and when hearing the scary conviction present in Nero’s tone and expression, V realized that if things kept escalating the officer could _ really _get him in trouble, so he exhaled a rather believable shocked chuckle while looking at Nero with confusion.

“I beg your pardon but, as much as I wouldn’t mind to get to know you more, I’m pretty sure you have me mistaken for someone else.”

V realized he could have certainly used a less mocking tone in the first part of the sentence when seeing how Nero gritted his teeth as his eyes gained fierceness, but since the boy looked even hotter like that he didn’t regret it that much.

“So you don’t know this pretty boy at all, Vail?”

Nevan’s playful voice showed the woman was clearly thinking that the supposed story they shared together was of a romantic (even physical) nature. The only one who looked even more lost than Nero was the other detective, who would have talked again if Nero hadn’t been faster.

“Vail?”, Nero repeated with a deadpan expression, causing V to tilt his head to the side when hearing his fake name being spelled with skepticism.

“Yes, that is my name”, the fact his polite, interested tone didn’t falter seemed to bother Nero even more, “perhaps you would be willing to tell me yours, officer?”

“You fucking know what my name is, _ Vail _”, Nero snapped, crossing his arms, “or do you prefer me to call you V again?”

Nero’s sarcastic words made a small shiver travel down V’s spine. 

There it was again: that familiar rush of anticipation that invaded him every time that he faced a particularly challenging job. V had felt it already the previous night, and not just while stealing the book, but also when he had confronted Nero, and now he was experiencing it again thanks to the officer’s too honest, straightforward reactions. 

And that was bad. That was _ really _ bad. Or at least, _ that _was what the rational part of his mind was telling him, while talking with a voice that sounded scarily similar to Nico when she got all hysterical for his ‘I-want-to-be-caught-and-killed’ behavior, as she called it. The other part though, the one which was more reckless and which enjoyed risk more than it definitely should, felt rather satisfied for having made the officer react in such a way even if he had barely done anything but standing there.

“Look, Nero, if I were you I’d stop trying”, the older man intervened with a surprising understanding tone, placing a supporting hand on Nero’s shoulder that made the officer look at his partner with confusion.

“What?”

“I mean that I have also gone through breakups”, Nero’s eyes opened so wide that they were about to leave their orbits, “and when the other person begins to pretend not knowing you, _ that’s _ a pretty loud hint to accept the rejection_. _”

“What the _ fuck_, Dante, this is not what’s this about!”

“Ah, the denial phase. I have also gone through that when being younger but don’t worry, kid: you will get pass that and see that there are plenty more fish in the sea_—ouch! _ ”

“I tell you that’s _ NOT _what this is!!”

When seeing the way Nero punched at Dante’s shoulder with exasperation, V could barely contain his amusement. Nero noticed it when looking back at him, which obviously didn’t help improve his mood.

“Shit, let’s talk. _ Now_.”

Nero managed to surprise V even more by taking him by the arm and dragging him rather unceremoniously further inside the gallery, causing Nevan to chuckle again surprised and Dante to exhale a resigned sigh that clearly indicated he thought he had been spot on in his deductions.

“Officer, if you need my collaboration regarding a particular matter you only need to ask”, V commented with a confused tone that he didn’t even bother to make it sound credible, while Nero turned the corner until reaching a [ smaller room ](http://www.blogto.com/upload/2010/02/20100209-Angell-Front-sml.jpg) that still had to be completely arranged, “I am more than willing to collaborate with the police, so if you preferred a more private place to talk we could visit the office_—_” 

For the third time, V wasn’t expecting that Nero snapped his back against the closest wall in order to cage him against it by slamming both of his hands on either side of his head, making the picture hanging next to it tremble dangerously, threatening to fall onto the floor.

“_—_or perhaps we could simply do it right here.”

V completed the sentence in the same smooth tone despite the fact that his heart was beating a little faster for the violent action. Also, his expression had remained completely imperturbable while returning Nero’s clear gaze, which in retrospective just made him look even more suspicious. However, he couldn’t bring himself to care about it. Not when Nero was so close that he could feel his exhales of air extremely close to his own mouth. 

“I know it’s you, V”, Nero drawled in a low tone, “you can pretend all you want, but I _ know _you were the one who pointed that gun at me last night.”

V opened his eyes a little more. 

“So you were assaulted? I’m sorry to hear that”, Nero half-closed his eyes when he adopted a light concerned tone, “definitely Red Grave is not safe these days. I hope you weren’t hurt.”

Nero’s jaw clenched for a moment before barking a snort.

“No, I only had the time of my life getting myself free from that fucking pipe.”

V hummed softly, allowing himself to show a compassionate smile that contrasted with the irony of his eyes.

“In that case the lack of sleep surely explains your misjudgement about my identity”, V noticed the way Nero’s hands turned into fists next to his head but didn’t avert his eyes from the officer’s face, “because I can assure you that tying officers has never entered my hobbies”, _ though that could change very soon at this rate_, V couldn’t help to think to himself.

Nero observed him for a couple of long seconds with a light puzzled expression, as if he was going through some kind of internal debate. Eventually Nero seemed to make his mind, and after digging his eyes on V’s again he suddenly leaned forward to join their mouths in a brusque, unexpected kiss that made V feel his stomach do a small flip-flop. 

Objectively it wasn’t the best kiss he had received, though definitely it had the potential to be if Nero dared to get more into it. However, before V could even think about returning it (and for the record, he _ would _have) Nero separated from him. The officer looked slightly flushed despite the rather standard kiss, but his expression was even more certain than before, letting V know that no matter how much he tried to convince Nero about his innocence, it wouldn’t work now: 

Nero knew.

He may not know everything about his identity, not yet at least, but definitely he knew he was more than the assistant he pretended to be. But of course, V couldn’t allow himself to admit such a thing, neither he planned to serve Nero the opportunity to reveal his identity on a silver platter. The only card he could play at the moment was to keep with his facade, thing that he proceeded to do right away by offering Nero an amused, moderately seductive smile.

“Not that I mind the change of topic, but if you simply wanted to kiss me there were easier ways than accusing me of being a criminal”

Nero snorted.

“You wish. I just had to verify something.”

“And I assume the result was the one you were expecting?”

Nero approached his face to his once again. V purposely made his eyes travel from Nero’s eyes to his mouth briefly before meeting his eyes.

“Yeah, you can bet it was. So if I were you, I would drop this act right now if you don’t want things get really bad for you.”

V raised a perfect eyebrow, a grin playing at his lips.

“Careful, officer. I don’t think threatening an innocent civilian is something you should be doing.”

“Please, there is _ nothing _innocent about you.”

“I can’t fathom from where you’ve obtained such an impression.”

“I don’t know, maybe because you’ve been all smug about every single thing? Come on, if you were innocent, for sure you’d be more concerned about being a suspect.”

“Well, I don’t think I have to remind you that everyone has the right of being considered innocent until proven guilty. So, unless you have something that proves that I’m who you say I am…”, V leaned forward to whisper the next sentence in Nero’s ear, “...you will have to take my word at face value, _ officer_.”

V ended the sentence ‘accidentally’ nudging his nose against Nero’s ear while applying the same emphasis to that last word than he used the previous night. He then leaned against the wall again even if Nero had stopped caging him in order to cross his arms in front of his chest, the way the jacket outlined more his arms because of the movement not going unnoticed by V.

“You right. I don’t have any evidence _ yet _”, Nero’s tone acquired more determination while approaching his face to V’s once again menacingly, “but I’ll eventually have, and when I do, I’ll come back for you.”

V’s smirk widened. He was flirting with the possibility of suggesting that perhaps by that time he would not be there anymore, but before he could add anything else to throw more wood to the fire they heard steps approaching. They both turned their head to the side in time to see Dante appear with his hands leaning on his hips casually. The older man looked at them alternatively without bothering to hide his curiosity before talking again while looking at Nero, using a knowing tone that immediately put the younger officer in tension.

“Well well, so for once I’m not the one who is slacking off to fool around.”

By then V was pretty sure that those two had to share a relation that went beyond being coworkers, not to mention that they were rather alike, physically at least. However, he guessed that given the circumstances Nero wouldn’t be too willing to do some small talk, so he decided to let Nico the task of investigating more about the officer in order to beat Nero into talking next.

“Do not worry, we have already finished”, V looked at Nero again, catching his attention, “the misunderstanding has been clarified, hasn’t it officer?

Nero sustained his gaze for a moment and then, with certain reluctance, he nodded, as if accepting momentary defeat.

They returned to the main entrance with Nevan, who didn’t make any new comment but that kept smiling to herself as if she was innerly laughing at an inside joke. After that, V spent the following minutes answering all the questions Dante asked about the book _ he _had stolen. He told them all the information he could allow himself to give related to the story of the book, to make sure that his expertise in the matter was proved but without saying anything that could betray he actually knew who the last owner had been, since Dante hadn’t commented anything about it or about to robbery.

“So you’re saying that the last time that book was sold for such a sum was in 1998 to the Mages Brothers.”

“The _ Maggs _Brothers”, V corrected Dante with a polite tone, still feeling Nero’s eyes buried on him despite the officer hadn’t spelled a word since they were interrupted by Dante, “it’s one of the oldest antiquarian booksellers in the world, and are quite famous for having collected extremely weird and valued manuscripts.”

“Yeah, sorry, that”, Dante said, accepting the correction with surprising modesty before looking at V with interest, “and, since then, no one else purchased the book?”

“Exactly”, V knew the wise thing was to stop right there, but of course his danger kink had to play out and make him keep talking, “but that is merely the official version. There was a certain unconfirmed rumor than circulated some years ago about the book having been stolen. The last owners refused to say anything to confirm or deny such a claim though, but evil tongues began to spread the tale that they were going through serious financial problems and they decided to sell it in the black market.”

Dante raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Books sold in the black market? Really?”

V chuckled softly, crossing his arms as well.

“Perhaps it’s not the usual merchandise the police is used to investigate, but Heaven knows how many pieces of art have been lost in such a way. Actually, it is well known that most part of the art exposed in galleries are fakes”, V felt Nevan digging her eyes on him without losing her serpentine smile, so he made sure to rectify, “not in this gallery of course. Here there are only originals of great quality.”

Dante began to laugh when Nevan nodded approvingly, and V suppressed a relieved sigh when the woman’s heterochromatic orange eyes stopped focusing on him. 

“I’d never dare to doubt that”, Dante said with amusement before offering a hand to V, “well, thank you very much for all the information, Mr. Vail. It has been a great help.”

V nodded with a smile, accepting the handshake firmly.

“You are welcome”, he formulated the next question with a curious tone, “can I ask why the police are so interested in this book though?”

Dante was opening his mouth surely to give an excuse when Nero talked.

“It was stolen by the Poetic Burglar.”

“_ Kid _!”

This time V was ready to face Nero’s stare head-on, and although a shocked expression would have been in order to, at least, try to dissipate Nero’s doubts at some level, he simply hinted a small grin that was intended for Nero only before focusing on Dante again in time to see this one looking suddenly stressed.

“Okay, uhm…”, Dante’s expression turned into a light grimace while joining his hands together, “...could you please keep the secret about it for now? We weren’t planning to announce it to the press yet.”

“Of course”, V agreed, looking at Nero while saying the next words, “my lips are sealed.”

He had time to fully enjoy Nero’s frustrated glare before Nevan intervened.

“And mine as well”, she suddenly approached Dante to enclose her arms around his neck, making Dante’s attention immediately shift towards her, “though maybe you’ll need to buy my silence~.”

Dante chuckled, nodding with wink when noticing the not-subtle-at-all suggestive innuendo.

“I’m sure I will enjoy doing such a thing.”

As Nevan and Dante continued with the light embarrassing flirting, V turned towards Nero again. He approached the officer in a couple of steps, causing this one to tense as he extracted his wallet from his pocket.

“If you ever need my help again...”, he averted his eyes briefly downwards to extract his [ personal card ](https://lili-typos.tumblr.com/image/189101372779) from it, “...please, do not hesitate in contacting me. I will be more than glad to help.”

He offered his card to Nero then, whose jaw clenched while looking down towards the small piece of paper. For a moment V thought that Nero was going to ignore it, but he felt a pang of satisfaction when after exhaling a sigh the young officer accepted it. 

“Sure”, the smile Nero offered V while storing his card in the back pocket of his trousers couldn’t be faker, “I have the feeling it will be soon.”

V’s grin widened.

“I will be waiting then”, he said in a lower, provoking tone that made Nero uselessly try to hide a small gulp, causing V to note himself another small victory.

He inclined his head briefly as a goodbye when Nero turned around to leave together with Dante, and even if he knew that the probabilities of being assassinated by Nico were pretty high, V couldn’t help to feel thrilled for the next encounter that he and Nero were fated to have, and that he'd make sure not to avoid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had enough time to create V's personal card <3 <3  
Spoiler alert: the boys are getting a slap on the wrist in the next chapter by the Chief of the Police and Nico respectively, but don't worry, no one dies in this story xD


	3. A not very compatible pair

“Damn it, Nero, you’re lucky that I was the only one around, you know?”, Dante said the moment they were back inside the car, settling his left hand on the wheel while the other turned the key to start the vehicle, “if Lady had accompanied you, everyone would know about your slip with that gothic assistant—”

“It’s him.”

Nero saw Dante frown briefly with confusion when hearing his claim, though his uncle’s attention was still in the rearview mirror in order to come back to the road.

“_Who_ is him?”

“V. He is the one who stole that book.”

“Mr. Vail you mean?”, Dante snorted, “good one, kid.”

Nero crossed his arms while looking towards the gallery, his jaw clenching when seeing V through the glassed crystal talking to Nevan, looking completely unconcerned. V hadn’t looked surprised in the least when he purposely revealed the book being stolen, and neither when learning about the Poetic Burglar’s involvement in the robbery. Not only that: the man had even grinned at him, surely knowing that Nero didn’t have any evidence in order to arrest him.

Fuck, Nero had met several arrogant bastards in his life (his father taking the cake), but V was in another damn league, exposing himself like that without even looking worried about it. It was frustrating. And well, kind of impressive too, he wasn’t going to lie. Nero had always admired courage, and that man surely had balls to behave like that. _But_ like hell if he was gonna let V have his way.

“I’m not joking, Dante”, the fact that he only addressed his uncle by his name when he was upset or was talking seriously made the older man’s sardonic smile slowly disappear, “I mean it. That man, Mr. Vail, I _know _he is the Poetic Burglar.”

Dante looked at him briefly, initially with incredulity, but when seeing that the conviction in Nero’s expression matched the one present in his voice, his skepticism went away.

“Okay, and how can you know it?”

Despite the question, Nero realized that Dante really believed him, like all the times that he had come to the older man with theories about cases that were difficult to take seriously but that turned to be true more times than not.

However, this time the story he was going to tell was even crazier, so Nero scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“It’s kind of complicated.”

Dante exhaled a short chuckle.

“I bet it is, but if you are serious about Mr. Vail being that thief, you have to tell me everything, kid”, after a small pause Dante tilted his head to the side briefly and talked again with an apologetic grimace, “and not _just _me.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide, staring at Dante in horror when understanding what he meant.

“No.”

“Yep.”

“Dante, _no_.”

“Nero, _yes_. Because if you’re right, you can’t deal with this on our own.”

“Why not?! It’s not the first time you hide I’m working on a case without my father knowing!”

“Okay, first of all: I doubt that there’s something Verg doesn’t know. He probably knew about you involving yourself more than you should in other cases and simply let it happen because it was convenient.”

“Oh, come on, don’t talk about him as if he was fucking omnipotent—”

“And second: this case is way out of your league to deal with it on your own. Hell, it’s big even for me to handle, so whatever it is what you’ve discovered, you need to tell the others asap. Your father included.”

Nero was about to keep protesting, but Dante looking serious was a rather weird thing that convinced him that, as much as he hated it, his uncle was right this time. He wasn’t a detective yet after all, so he shouldn’t even be involved in a case of that magnitude to begin with. Besides, if Vergil’s reaction when learning about it was as bad as Nero feared it would be, he doubted he would be even alive to be able to become one.

“Fuck, he’s gonna kill me.”

Dante barked a laugh when Nero hit the back of his head against the headrest of his seat, already fearing the upcoming meeting with the Chief.

“Come on, probably you haven’t messed up as much as you think.”

When Nero finished speaking five minutes later, Dante’s mouth was completely opened in disbelief. The older man closed it, looked in front of him again, and nodded to himself twice while talking with an annoyingly secure tone.

“Yep, he’s gonna kill you. So, have you made a will? Because I hope you have _and _that I appear on it.”

Nero’s only answer was to hit the back of his uncle’s head grumpily.

Twenty minutes later they were back in the police station. Dante and Nero went directly towards the Chief’s office, and when passing by his desk Nero saw Lady almost falling asleep on her desk. He internally wished that she remained like that, but the woman seemed to have a sixth sense to smell trouble and woke up when Nero was about to leave her desk behind.

“Shit, Nero, are you okay? You look like a dead man walking.”

Nero glared at his uncle when this one exhaled a laugh, after Lady’s scary intuition was spot on as usual.

“Well, if there’s something you want to tell the kid, you should say it now, love”, Dante said in a conversational tone while enclosing an arm around Nero’s neck, “this could be his last day on Earth.”

Nero elbowed Dante so hard that the man exhaled a pained whine before continuing their way towards Vergil’s office.

“Hey, don’t leave me hanging like that!”, Lady exclaimed, following them, “what’s going on, Nero? Did you do something again to piss your daddy off?”

Nero was about to say the woman for hundredth time to stop calling Vergil in such an embarrassing way but they were already in front of his old man’s den. Dante was the one who knocked when seeing Nero gulping, and after a couple of seconds the always arrogant voice of his father sounded from inside to say a simply ‘_Come in_’.

“Try to relax, kid”, Dante said with a voice that sounded now more reassuring, “I have your back.”

Dante winked at him then, making Nero feel stupidly better even if the probabilities of Dante screwing the situation up even more with his intervention were rather high. The older detective was the one in leading the way, followed by Nero and also Lady even if the current situation had nothing to do with her. By then everyone was already used to her extensive meddling and Nero didn’t even think off trying to make her leave. He was sure she would manage to learn everything any way or another anyway, and he needed all his energies to deal with his father, instead of wasting them fighting a lost battle.

Vergil was standing behind his [desk](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/24/d6/87/24d6879148180f0a4ce0d933377fb249.jpg) together with Trish, who closed a folder Vergil had been examining when they entered. As usual, his father was the only one in the room who was dressing in his uniform, which adjusted perfectly to his frame because the man insisted the clothing was tailor-made once he was promoted. Vergil had already given up in making his brother, Lady and especially Nero dress ‘properly’ for their job. The only one who could dress how she wanted without the Chief protesting was Trish, but since they had lost count of the fires the woman had been forced to extinguish for their sake, they never dared to protest for such favoritism.

“So, Trish has told me that you have already been informed about the Poetic Burglar”, Vergil sat down on his chair as Trish abandoned the room, while rolling her eyes after Dante winked at her seductively, “and also that you were sent to learn more about the stolen merchandise. Have you made any progress in that matter?”

Nero suppressed a gulp. He had hoped to prepare the ground before bringing up the topic, but of course, leave it to his father to go straight to the point without you having the chance to be ready about it.

“Yeah, broth—_Chief_”, Dante rectified when seeing the piercing way Vergil looked at him for treating him with such familiarity when being on service, “about that, I think you’ll want to hear what Nero has to say. We may be closer to solve the case thanks to him.”

Somehow, Nero managed to keep his firm stance when Vergil’s attention shifted to him. His nervousness was momentarily replaced by annoyance when seeing the excessively surprised expression Vergil showed, not liking that his father found so hard to believe that he had a lead in the case.

“Is that so?”

Hearing the light ironic component in his father’s voice didn’t help either so that Nero thought carefully before beginning to explain, probably too sincerely, what had happened the previous night and that same morning, deciding to talk with all the security and firmness he was able to gather to convince his father about his theory.

“...and therefore, I’m sure that Mr. Vail is the guy we’re looking for.”

When he finished speaking with that overly confident statement, he finally noticed the faces of the people present in the room. Lady was covering her mouth with a hand with an expression of stupor, Dante was making a face that was really similar to someone waiting for a bomb to fall at any moment in the room, and Vergil was staring at Nero without blinking, the only thing that betrayed his anger being the vein about to pop in his temple and the white knuckles of his interlaced hands.

“So, let me see if I have understood everything right”, Vergil began with a tone that resembled the fake calm the preceded a really terrible storm, “what you are saying is that last night you witnessed someone clearly suspicious rappelling down a building. Someone who stole your gun, attacked you, escaped without you notifying _any _of this to the department, and who apparently is the same man you went to visit today _and_ also the Poetic Burglar, the most famous thief nowadays who no one has been able to capture in the last 2 years.”

While Nero gulped thickly, Vergil talked again with a fake conciliatory tone.

“Please, tell me this is some kind of elaborated joke so that I can _just _punish you without actually firing you.”

Nero exhaled a sigh, raising his hands in front of him conciliatory in a gesture that he had seen Dante do several times, and which accidentally he had adopted.

“Look, I know it sounds crazy—”

“‘Crazy’ does not begin to describe your behavior, Nero”, Vergil interrupted him, his grey, penetrating eyes making Nero remember all the times that, as a kid, he had been frozen on the spot for receiving that look, “and for now I’m going to leave aside your theory of such an individual being the Poetic Burglar because, in that case, by doing things right we perhaps would have been able to catch him already.”

Nero suppressed a curse because his father had a damn point there, but he couldn’t give up so easily.

“Yeah, I know I screwed it up. And I know I should have warned about the man from last night, and I’m sorry—”

“Well, now that you have apologized everything is solved then.”

Nero gritted his teeth, knowing he deserved the reprimand but still feeling frustrated as any time that his father adopted his typical attacking stance during fights, consisting of using cold sarcasm and interrupting in order to make him realize how badly he had messed up.

“No, of course it’s not”, Nero continued, trying very much that his annoyance didn’t show in his tone not to ruin things even more, “but we know who he is, so we can begin to work to catch him.”

“‘_We_’”, Vergil repeated slowly, “don’t you think you have done enough already? Not to mention that you haven’t exposed a single argument to convince me about Mr. Vail being the same criminal you crossed paths with last night, and much less his connection to the Poetic Burglar. How can you be so sure it’s him?”

Nero didn’t notice Dante changing his weight from one leg to the other.

“Kid, maybe you should avoid mentioning—”

“Because I kissed him.”

Until Lady exhaled a shocked _‘What?!_’ Nero had almost forgotten the woman was in the room, sitting in one of the chairs as if she was simply enjoying a show. Dante also completed his previous warning sentence with a resigned ‘—that’, and even if the situation was pretty horrible, Nero couldn’t help to think that the way Vergil’s mouth fell slightly slack when hearing his answer was something extremely worthy to witness (and a little funny).

“That you did _what_?”

“I kissed him”, Nero repeated when Vergil talked slowly, “he did it last night before leaving, so I just wanted to verify it was him.”

With Lady’s poorly suppressed laughs as a background, Vergil opened his mouth once, closed it, opened it again and then after exhaling a sigh he closed his eyes while leaning his forehead on his hand, as if he was suddenly exhausted.

“So, your justification for Mr. Vail being guilty is that his appearance was similar to some criminal you saw in a dark alley with poor visibility after drinking, and that you kissed him”, Vergil looked at Dante then, “and you believed this story was worth listening to, Dante? I think your subjectivity with your nephew is clouding even more your judgement.”

Nero’s hands turned into fists without being able to prevent it. Again, he knew that Vergil was in his right to be beyond upset, but it was exasperating to know to be right and that he didn’t manage to convince his father in any possible way.

Dante must have noticed his frustration because he took a step forward, situating next to Nero.

“Look, Vergil, I know it’s not the most credible story.”

“That claim falls short once again.”

“But if there’s something you can’t deny is that, as reckless as your son is, he has inherited our intuition”, Dante placed a hand on Nero’s shoulder, “so if he says Mr. Vail is our man, then I believe him.”

“Yeah, me too”, Lady suddenly jumped forward, placing her hand on Nero’s free shoulder as this one looked at his uncle and co-worker with eyes opened wide in surprise, “I mean, it’s not the first time that he manages to discover who the culprit is even before us. He has a talent for it.”

“And we can’t deny that it’s a too big coincidence that the book was stolen a mere street away from when Nero and that criminal met”, Dante pointed at Vergil with his free hand, “that’s your connection between the criminal and the Poetic Burglar. And about linking Mr. Vail with them, well, we’ll have to trust in your son's kissing ability.”

Dante’s words forced Lady to muffle another laugh, but Nero didn’t notice it. He was busy staring at Vergil in anticipation when this one leaned back in his chair while crossing his arms, his index and forefinger rhythmically tapping against his opposite arm while thinking in silence.

“So, basically, you two are saying that we should trust Nero’s hunch."

Dante looked ready to justify it in another way, but Nero didn’t let him.

“Yes. And I want you to let me work on this.”

Before Vergil could add anything else, Nero took a step forward, making Lady and Dante release his shoulders at the same time to listen to him with attention.

“Listen, I know I fucked it up. And I know I should only watch Dante work and provide support, but if you let me be full on this, I know I can catch him. V—Mr. Vail thinks he is untouchable, that he is way cleverer than us, so he doesn’t take us seriously. And that will be his fucking mistake”, Nero acquired a hint of beg that he would surely regret later but not at the moment, “please, dad—_Chief_, let me do this. Let me catch him. And if at the end I’m mistaken and Mr. Vail is innocent, I’ll stop trying to pass the detective exam until the next couple of years.”

His last words caused Lady and Dante to let out shocked exclamations before intervening.

“Oi oi, kid, that’s a little excessive.”

“Yes, you’ve been studying like mad for this year exam!”

But Nero meant it, and for the way Vergil’s opened more for a moment when hearing his determined words, it was evident his father had noticed how serious he was about the whole thing. The Chief knew how important it was to him to finally become a detective, so the fact that he was willing to put such a desire on hold proved how damn sure he was about V.

After some pretty eternal seconds, Vergil exhaled a long sigh and nodded, making Nero let out the breath he had been holding.

“Very well, Nero. You have my permission to investigate, _but_ with discretion from now on. We don’t want that Mr. Vail, in case he is the Poetic Burglar, decides to run away because you are too obvious.”

“Which means no more kisses no matter how hot the guy is, kid.”

Nero closed his eyes in mortification when hearing the lilting teasing while Lady suffered a new laughing attack. He was about to turn around to hit his uncle for his stupid comment but then he remembered the man had supported him, so he owed him one. Besides, he kind of deserved to be mocked up, especially because kissing V again had felt surprisingly good, and in fact at the moment he had been unable _not _to wonder how it would feel if both of them decided to go all out during a kiss. But well, as long as he controlled those stupid impulses, he guessed it wasn’t that bad to feel slightly attracted to that hot bastard.

No doubt that Lady laughed at him sometimes about his partners: he passed from being with the sweet, lovely Kyrie to be slightly turned on by a damn criminal. Definitely there was no middle ground for him.

“However…”, Vergil raised lightly his voice while looking at Dante and Lady, putting an end to the woman’s giggles and to Nero’s thoughts, “I want you two to keep investigating other alternatives. Because as much as intuition has been able to help you in more than one occasion, I refuse to take Nero’s theory as valid until I have tangible evidence. Have I made myself clear?”

The three of them said a unanimous ‘_Yes, sir!_’ before turning around to leave the room. Nero was about to exhale a relieved sigh, not believing his luck, when Vergil talked again.

“Oh, and Nero”, he turned around and shivered when seeing the wolfish smile that had appeared in Vergil’s face, “needless to say, since this little investigation of yours has no foundation for the time being, your payment will be frozen until you bring me something that proves your theory, so I really encourage you to work hard, fast and achieve results. That is all.”

Nero’s mouth was still opened in horror when Dante carefully dragged him out of the room and closed the office door behind them.

“Well, it went pretty well, huh?”, Nero recovered enough to glare at his uncle when hearing his excessively cheery tone, causing him to chuckle, “hey, come on, you are still alive!”

“And still with a job”, Lady added with a teasing smile, “so your daddy was pretty merciful this time, don’t you think?”

Nero exhaled a defeated long sigh that made Dante chuckle and ruffle his hair with affection while Lady patted his back, but almost immediately he felt resolve invading him.

Because of V, his promotion was at stake, and the risk of having to ask Dante to crash in his place for being unable to pay that month rent had exponentially grow, so he planned to become V’s fucking shadow to make sure he brought that unfairly attractive criminal to justice.

* * *

“So, I’ve been doing some research and I’ve found reaaally juicy books that are practically begging to be stolen. Do you wanna see what I’ve found?”

V, lying on the chaise longue sofa that invaded good part of Nico’s studio with his long fingers interlaced behind his head, nodded absentmindedly. The hacker, sitting at his computer backwards to lean her arms on the backrest of her rotatory chair, hit the enter key of his keyboard with such force that Griffon, posed on the sofa next to V, squawked in protest for being startled. The thief softly hushed at him while caressing the bird’s front with the back of his fingers, calming him down instantly.

He missed Shadow, the panther he decided to liberate from her insanely small cage together with Griffon during his first work as the Poetic Burglar, after deducing that the animals’ fate would not be a good one. However, Red Grave wasn’t a city where a panther could move freely, and it broke V’s heart the idea of having the animal being locked in Nico’s apartment. He knew very well how oppressive it was to live in a place without having the option to leave, so for sure Shadow was way better in the property he had bought in Mallet under a fake name. There, the feline had more space to move how he pleased and Matier, the woman he had hired to take care of the house and the animal, sent him daily reports of Shadow being happy and in perfect condition.

Nevertheless, he took a mental note of visiting the place as soon as possible.

“Sorry, chicken”, Nico apologized towards the bird before clearing her throat, signaling at the opposite wall, where a projector was displaying the image of an ancient [book](https://ff-65a4.kxcdn.com/assets/uploads/OriginalDocs_old/968/gospels-henry-lion-facsimile-edition-01.jpg), “so, the first in the list is the ‘_Gospels of Henry the Lion’_. This little guy is valued in $11.4 million, and though it was last purchased by the German government in 1983, apparently its current owner is a priest of reaaally shady reputation which is currently in Fortuna.”

V hummed to himself. The quality of the book was unmistakable but eventually he shook his head.

“Keep it for a future, but I would prefer to avoid Fortuna for the time being.”

Nico nodded, her smile turning playful.

“What a pity. I was hoping to see you dress like a priest again to sneak in the Cathedral”, V half-closed his eyes at her but the woman had already hit enter again, “so, [this beauty](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2015/6/11/1434018785360/b84845c8-a0c1-4038-917a-77a045ad910d-2060x1236.jpeg?width=620&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=bfba964a1c77fd3e9e28e76585110ac9) is held captive in Dumary, waiting for her Knight in Shining Armor to rescue her…or well, in a Darker Armor in your case. This is ‘_The Gutenberg Bible_’, officially last sold in 1987 but unofficially bought by an asshole businessman in 2003. This babe is not as valued since it’s only $4.9 million but I have a couple of contacts who would be extremely interested in purchasing it for almost the double, with guarantee of them treating the lady as she deserves.”

“I see you are in a religious mood, Nico.”

The woman snorted when hearing V’s teasing comment.

“Yeah, you know me: the only reason I’m not a nun is because your skinny ass needs me”, she winked at him, causing V to roll his eyes with patience, “so? What about this one? Besides, we haven’t stolen anything in Dumary yet. It could be a good opportunity to increase your fame.”

V sighed. That bible had caught his attention, but still, something prevented him from accepting it. Or better said, someone.

“Actually, would you happen to have any book worth stealing in Red Grave?”

Nico looked at him in disbelief, blinking rapidly several times before talking with an incredulous tone.

“Uhm, no? You are the one who always avoid to act twice in the same city because it’s risky as hell.”

V managed to keep his face all the imperturbable he could.

“Yes, but I believe this city is pretty promising, and my position in the gallery gives us a great advantage, so it would be a pity to change location so soon.”

Nico blinked again and then moved while still sitting on her chair to get closer to the sofa where V was lying.

“Okaaaay...what’s going on here?”

V exhaled a chuckle when hearing Nico’s suspicious tone. He bit his lower lip briefly, trying to come up with the best way of delivering the news so that the probabilities of the woman suffering a hysterical attack, killing him or both were minimal.

“Well, I may have found something interesting here.”

Nico frowned confused.

“You mean that new entertainment that you mentioned last night?”, V nodded, “okay, and what is that?”

V got ready for what was coming.

“It’s not a ‘what’ but a ‘who’.”

Nico’s eyes opened wide.

“You mean that you met someone that makes _you _want to stay?”, V nodded again, causing Nico to raise a suggestive eyebrow, “wow, the gentleman has to be really interesting to cause such a reaction in you. What’s his name?”

There he went.

“His name is Nero. And he’s a police officer.”

A predictable shocked pause followed, followed by an also predictable, loud _‘WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!_’ that made Griffon almost fall from the couch arm.

“A-A police officer?! B-But when have you met one?”, Nico’s eyes opened wide and suddenly the woman had jumped on his lap, pinning him on the sofa to grab his t-shirt with force to shake him, “you idiot, for that reason it took you too long to come back to the van last night, huh?! You were spotted?!”

“Nico, please, be careful, this t-shirt is not cheap precisely.”

“To hell with your t-shirt, idiot!! Talk right _NOW_.”

V made sure to do it as fast as he could when hearing a rip off sound coming from his t-shirt for the way Nico was grabbing it.

When he finished, Nico continued staring at him in mute stupor for several seconds before beginning to shout again, their closeness making V put another grimace.

“Are you out of your fucking mind, V?!”

“No, though I understand your distress may be a little justified.”

“‘_A little justified_’? Dude, you’ve just confessed that a fucking cop almost caught you and that he suspects who you are. HOW THE HELL DO YOU WANT ME TO BE CALM?!”

“Because he can’t do me anything”, seeing that Nico planned to shout again, V settled his hands on her arms, talking with his best soothing voice, “yes, you are right: he almost caught me. _Almost_. And yes, he suspects me, but there is no way that he can prove who I am. He does not possess any single evidence that links me to neither of the two crime scenes: we are safe.”

“Yeah, but for how long, huh? Damn it, we have left cities for way less than that: you should be packing your things to get the hell out of here!”

“I told you: he is interesting.”

“For goodness sake, V, think with your brain and not with your dick! If you wanna get laid I bet there are easier ways to do it!”

V couldn’t help to exhale a laugh when hearing Nico’s exasperated words together with her choice of words.

“You say that because you haven’t seen him.”

“Yeah, I haven’t and you _shouldn’t _want to do it either! Come on, there are plenty of hot babes out there that won’t put a bullet in your head while trying to arrest you!”

V sighed, offering Nico a disarming smile that caused the woman to shut up because _that _look worked on her bi-ass more times than not.

“Perhaps, but you know I like challenges.”

Nico opened and closed her mouth like a fish needing air before exhaling a defeated curse, abandoning V’s lap to drop next to him on the sofa.

“You and your damn danger kink”, she muttered, causing V to chuckle.

They remained in silence for some seconds before Nico talked with a more calmed tone.

“Now seriously: you sure you wanna risk _everything _just for a guy? I mean, as hot as that Nero can be—”

“I’ve said interesting, Nico, not ‘hot’.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t deny wanting to bang him so he has to be hot. But whatever: as much ‘interesting’ as he is, you know that it’s _impossible _to make it work, right? I mean, you are a thief, he is a cop: it’s not a very compatible pair.”

V sighed, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

He knew that what Nico was suggesting about leaving Red Grave and forget about Nero was the wise thing to do. Normally, changing his identity would have never supposed him any problem. Even before becoming the Poetic Burglar, he had always been unable to stay put. He easily got bored when being too much time in the same place, needing frequent changes of scenery not to feel trapped. And now, with the police chasing him in several cities, he knew doing such a thing was unavoidable if he wanted not to be caught.

However, this time he preferred to delay such a thing as much as possible. For once, he found rather satisfied with the job he had found, and yes, he couldn’t lie: Nero was playing an important role in his decision. The officer couldn’t be more his type and had the capacity of making him want to test how far he could go with him, but there was something else despite the obvious physical attraction and his desire of ‘banging’ him as Nico had said. And that something was that, despite their positions, Nero was seeing him as he really was.

V could _never _confirm Nero’s suspicions if he wanted to avoid jail, but he knew that Nero knew. And the fact that someone, for the first time in so many years, knew who he _really _was, was liberating. It was exciting, thrilling, and he didn’t want to lose that. Would he be risking unnecessarily with that game? Yes. Could everything go really wrong at the end? Absolutely. But if that meant that he could keep interacting with Nero and seeing the officer struggle and fight to learn more about _him_, it would be worth it.

Besides, V had learnt soon to detect what others thought about him, which was a talent that came in handy to know when it was mandatory to change places when people may begin to suspect him. For that reason, despite the anger and hate that Nero had tried to display during their encounter, V had noticed the way Nero reacted when he adopted certain tones or said certain things, not to mention the head-to-toe scanning the officer gave him when they met again. So, something was telling him that he and the officer eventually consuming one of their fights in a bed was not so off charts. And he wasn’t going to deny it: he was looking forward to it.

After some seconds, Nico exhaled a long, resigned sigh and palmed his thigh brusquely, making him jump a little startled, not having expected the slap.

“Weeell, I guess I have some homework to do.”

Nico stood up from the sofa fluently, stretched her arms over her head causing her short t-shirt to raise even more to show her tattooed skin, and sat down on her chair again to rapidly slide towards the computer. V stared at her with his eyes opened wide, causing her to look at him questioningly.

“What?”

V shook his head softly with a small smile.

“I thought you would try harder to convince me.”

Nico snorted loudly.

“Dude, I know when to retire. Besides, if you are determined to play Romeo and Juliet with that cop, at least I will make sure that you don’t end dead like those idiots.”

V chuckled when hearing her resigned tone before standing up again. He approached her from behind and settled his hands on her shoulders again as the woman typed furiously.

“Don’t worry, Nico. No one is going to die.”

Nico huffed, reaching for a cigarette with her left hand and raising it so that V was the one in lighting it with the lighter that was also resting on the table.

“You better”, he took a drag on her cigarette before exhaling the smoke, “because I don’t plan to take care of your pets if you die stupidly.”

V smiled to himself when her comment caused Griffon to caw in agreement. He then deposited a soft peck on the top of Nico’s head and dragged another chair close to help Nico in the search. Considering the mess his whims were putting her into, that was the least he could do.

Though, truth to be told, he doubted he ever regretted to have taken the decision of staying. Somehow, even if it sounded ridiculous, V felt that Nero was exactly what he had been looking for all those years. And now that it seemed he had found it, he refused to let it go so soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, both Nero and V survived yeey xD I'm so happy to have included Shadow and Griffon in this AU too <3 <3  
The fun between Romeo and Juliet finally begins in the next chapter hehehe :DD


	4. Surveillance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After the drama that is coming in my other Nero/V fic, I needed these two simply flirting while Nero is still a little in denial. I hope you enjoy it <3

Lady yawned loudly for easily the twentieth time, causing Nero to sigh with impatience from the driver seat of the incognito police car inside which they had been sitting the whole morning.

“You know that you don’t have to be here, right?”, he commented as the woman shifted on the copilot seat to adopt a more comfortable position, crossing her legs while leaning her elbow on the car window. 

“Yup, but in the office I have Trish going after my ass to fill more pending reports, so I prefer to help you in this stalking thing, as boring as it is.”

“It’s not _ stalking _, Lady, but surveillance.”

“Sorry, man, but until you find some ‘tangible evidence’ as your daddy said…”, Lady made the quoting gesture with her fingers before offering Nero a teasing smile, “...this is just an ‘elaborated technique to stalk your current crush’.”

The loud, frustrated grunt that he exhaled caused Lady to begin to laugh. Nero didn’t need to ask her from whom he had obtained such a stupid definition. He had been raised by Dante as well after all, and saying something that dumb suited his uncle a lot.

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve caught me”, he said in a defeated tone, though his eyes kept fixing in the art gallery he and Dante visited the previous day, “actually I only want to date that guy and risking my payment _ and _job was the fucking easiest way to do it.”

“Well, there are people who like to do everything the hard way”, Nero threw the crumpled wrapper of the chips he had eaten during the wait at Lady’s face without even looking, causing the woman to exhale a soft ‘ouch’ before continuing talking, “but now for real: are you _ really _sure that Mr. Vail is our man?”

Nero frowned with confusion. He looked at Lady when hearing her sudden serious tone, causing her to shrug.

“I only ask because I’ve been there too, practically smelling the detective badge. And when being _ that _close, we all have wanted to do something big in order to get the promotion with flying colors.”

Nero’s frown intensified.

“Are you saying that I’m making up this thing of the Poetic Burglar _ just _to get promoted?”

“Nope, not at all”, Lady said without the least hint of hesitation, “I mean, I really believe that you _ think _ that Mr. Vail is the culprit, but maybe you are so sure because you _ want _him to be.”

Nero sighed, his eyes shifting towards the art gallery’s glass where V occasionally could be seen transporting some boxes or small pieces of art for the exposition taking place the next week. 

He understood what Lady was saying. Since he joined the police department immediately after turning 19 (against his father’s advice who insisted he should have kept studying at least another couple of years), he had seen first hand the stress of several officers while trying to become detectives. And some of them, generally the youngest and most impulsive ones, had made really stupid mistakes, like trying to bite off more than they could chew which resulted on them spending even more years until managing to be promoted. 

Nero was aware he was in that exact same situation. Probably if he had warned the department about V the moment they crossed paths, his meeting with his father would have gone way more smoothly...Or well, only _ slightly _more smoothly. It was Vergil after all.

However, even if he wanted to acquire that fucking shiny badge at any cost, and even if he knew that catching the Poetic Burglar would shorten that process incredibly while cleaning his name, he wasn’t self-deceiving himself into believing Mr. Vail was the culprit. He _ knew _Mr. Vail, or whichever his real name was, was the Poetic Burglar. Fuck, he wouldn’t have compromised himself to let pass the following two examination dates if he wasn’t sure.

“Okay, you’ve convinced me”, Lady’s sudden comment surprised Nero, since he hadn’t said anything, “right now you look like a bull about to gore someone, so I won’t doubt again that your crush is that thief.”

Nero couldn’t help to exhale a chuckle when hearing Lady’s choice of words.

“You aren’t going to stop calling him that, are you?”, he said with resignation.

“Weeell, you have to admit that kissing him to verify his identity is not something very common.”

“I told you already he did it first. I was just—”

“Aaand I’m not blind: you weren’t very subtle checking him out today when he entered the gallery.”

“What the— have you seen the fucking [ t-shirt ](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/b1/98/e1/b198e15ec894c04f178a813b25b16ee7.jpg) he is wearing? How do you want me _ not _to look?!”

“Oh, no, Nero: _ I _ have looked, _ you _ have stared at his collarbone as if you wanted to sink your teeth on it at the first chance.”

Nero felt his ears burning while remaining in a grumpy silence, because _maybe _Lady wasn’t that wrong, since he kind of had a thing for necks and V’s tattooed one exposed _like that _was begging to be marked…

...aaand such thoughts were surely the reason why Dante and Lady thought he had a fucking crush on the man, since Nero knew he was terrible at hiding what he thought.

“Come on, Nero”, Lady said playfully, “even I can tell Mr. Vail is handsome. There’s nothing wrong with admitting it, you know?”

“Fuck, _ fine _ , I admit the guy is hot, happy?”, seeing that Lady kept looking at him with insistence Nero reluctantly kept talking, “and yeah, _ maybe _under other circumstances I would put the moves on him—”

“_HAH _! I knew it!”

_ “ _ — _ but _ I remind you that the bastard is an international wanted criminal, and that because of him I’m in this mess, so he could be Mr. Universe: nothing is gonna happen.”

“Yep, I agree. He is a reaaally naughty boy. But I bet that makes him sexier, he he he~”

Nero was already searching for something else to throw at Lady as this one protected her face with her arms while exhaling fast ‘nononono’s when the door of the gallery opened and V exited from it, with the same shoulder bag he had been carrying when entering, which told Nero the man was surely out for an early lunch.

“Okay, let’s see where he goes”, he rapidly started the car as Lady put her belt, waiting until V turned the corner to begin to move. 

He didn’t turn the corner immediately, remaining close to the sidewalk so that only the nose of the vehicle was passing the corner. Nero’s eyes opened wide when seeing V next to an expensive looking, black motorbike in the process of putting himself a helmet, which identified him as the owner of the vehicle.

“Wow”, Lady chuckled to herself, “his bad boy vibes keep growing.”

Nero contented himself with snorting, strongly refusing to admit to Lady (and himself) that the image of an impeccably dressed V mounting such a beast formed a nice (sexy) contrast.

* * *

V smirked to himself when seeing in the side mirror the car that had been parked all the morning outside the gallery, following him. Truth to be told, Nero was doing a rather good job. He was keeping a decent distance, always making sure that at least three or four cars were between the car and him, and when he turned a corner Nero always waited several seconds before doing the same.

However, since beginning to gain popularity, V had got used to pay attention to details, so detecting when someone was following him was something relatively easy for him. He was aware it was ironic to make such a claim when he had been caught almost red-handed by Nero a couple of nights ago, but that had been a slip, the exception that proves the rule, and he didn’t plan to be surprised like that ever again.

Certainly Nero hadn’t lied when saying they would be seeing each other soon. Nico hadn’t even had time to search information about the officer, since none of them had expected Nero to be _ that _direct. It was evident that they had underestimated how willing Nero was to catch him, so probably pretending not having seen the young officer and continuing his day as usual was the safest way to act. In fact, the wisest way to approach his current situation with Nero was acting as little suspicious as possible, in order to try to convince the officer that he wasn’t the man he was looking for. Basically, V’s efforts should be devoted to shift Nero’s attention from him, as impossible as that had seemed the previous day.

Of course, _ that _ was precisely what V didn’t want to do. However, the fact that he was willing to interact with Nero again didn’t mean that he had forgotten that Nero and him were, basically, enemies, so he perfectly knew he had to be careful not to let Nero get a single, solid hint that could compromise him.

After all V could feel attracted to Nero, or seek more than a mere conversation or a couple of too innocent, insufficient kisses with the officer, or even look forward for their next encounter that would undeniably happen when posing as the Poetic Burglar, _ but _ his freedom and, by association, Nico’s one would always be his top priority. The woman had already resigned herself to the fact that ‘V’s future conquest was a fucking cop’ (her words, not his), and despite the fact that V was being rather selfish, she had agreed on going along with his petition of staying in Red Grave despite the implicit risks. She had decided to stay for him, so he would _ never _be that stupid to relax enough to be caught or to cause her to be caught.

So, as long as he was careful, he could certainly have some fun, like it was about to happen then.

At that moment V was forced to stop in a red light. He checked on the side mirror that Nero had stopped as well. He quickly considered his options, and with a smile beginning to form in his lips he decided that perhaps it was a good moment to discover how Nero reacted to sudden changes of plan. It was a little experiment that could come in handy in the near future.

When the light turned green, V turned the corner, initially following the rest of the cars while paying attention to any empty places in the sidewalk to park his motorbike. When, a couple of minutes later, he found a rather narrow space between two cars, he suddenly abandoned the main path to rapidly park his vehicle in a single, fast movement that didn’t require any extra maneuvers. The action could be considered a little risky but not illegal, and in fact V heard some impressed gasps coming from the pedestrians when he dismounted.

He briefly fixed his hair, which had ended little messed after wearing the helmet, and with Nico’s voice saying a mocking ‘_ Show off _’ in his head, V pretended to be securing his motorbike while paying attention to Nero’s car out of the corner of his eye. An amused smirk was about to escape him when the car was forced to keep advancing, unable to stop anywhere. 

Although he had to follow the traffic flow in order to reach his destination, V turned around and walked in the opposite direction until reaching the next corner. The moment he turned it, V leaned against the wall in a casual waiting posture, one of his arms across his chest while the other sustained his mobile against his ear, pretending to be attending a call.

When a minute was about to pass, V was beginning to think that perhaps Nero had decided to keep his way when he suddenly heard the distant sound of a car stopping brusquely followed by several horns and the shouts of angry drivers. V pushed back an amused grin and began an internal countdown.

Three…

Two…

One…

...and there it was Nero, half-running to turn the corner with vehemence just to stop in his tracks while exhaling a loud shocked curse, clearly not expecting seeing him there.

“Nero?”, biting back a chuckle after seeing Nero jumping because of the scare, V used his best surprised tone before pretending to be talking on the phone, “sorry, can I call you later? An acquaintance just ran into me.”

He hanged up the hypothetical call and stored his mobile inside his bag without stopping looking at Nero. The officer’s glaring eyes made difficult for V to display a relatively innocent smile. By basing on the horns that kept sounding at the other side of the street, it seemed that Nero had caused quite a ruckus there when abandoning the car. V knew that he should probably feel worried by such a behavior, because if Nero reacted _ that _exaggeratedly when he was in his ‘civilian form’ as Nico called it, what could the officer do when he was the Poetic Burglar? V knew he shouldn’t be willing to discover it but oh, he was.

“What a coincidence”, V said with a surprised tone, “I didn’t expect seeing you so soon.”

Nero sighed at that moment, placing his hands on his hips while pointing towards the road with a brusque, lateral movement of his head.

“You knew we were following you, right?”

V blinked a couple of times, feigning confusion.

“Following me?”, he exhaled then a small, surprised chuckle, as if suddenly understanding everything, “please, Nero, if you insist on believing that I’m a criminal—”

“Oh, I know you are.”

“—I told you I was more than willing to answer your questions to dispel any prevailing doubts. You kept my card, didn’t you? So you could have simply called.”

Nero exhaled a louder sigh this time while passing a hand through his hair, his tone sounding resigned when talking next.

“Alright, Mr. Vail…”

“Please, I think we’ve already left the ‘Mr.’ phase behind. You can simply call me Vail. Or V”, he saw Nero tense due to his interruption, but he kept talking without the least trace of nervousness, “you already did so yesterday in the gallery, remember?”

Nero snorted.

“Yeah, and not _ just _in the gallery”, the officer crossed his arms and V managed to keep his expression unchanged despite the fact that, deep inside, he was fantasizing about how it would feel to grab those biceps for anchor while being in a way more horizontal position, “okay, V, let's get this straight once and for all. It’s evident you’re not going to confess being a criminal…”

“I’m afraid I cannot admit such a lie, officer, as much as I’d like to please you.”

“...but I’m not going to change my mind about you being one, neither to abandon this investigation. So you can keep with your game of being completely clueless as much as you want but, next time…”, Nero got closer to V, causing this one’s heart to skip a beat despite it wasn’t showed in his face, “...be sure that your cool motorbike tricks won’t work against me again.”

Until Nero, sadly, pulled backwards V sustained his gaze before talking.

“So I’m being investigated? With what kind of proofs, if I may ask?”, Nero tensed, changing his weight from one feet to the other, which made V rapidly deduce what was happening, “oh, so you mean you are investigating on your own. Unofficially I presume?”

Nero clenched his jaw when V purposely adopted a conversational tone, as if resting importance to his activities.

“Then perhaps you could help me with something: in case I decided to call the police department to claim that one of his officers has been following me without any justification or authorization…”, V crossed his arms while raising his chin a little, “...what kind of improper behavior should I mention when filling my complaint? Abuse of authority? Attempt of intimidation? Stalking?”, a mischievous grin appeared in his face, “Harassment?”

The way Nero froze when hearing the list of crimes caused V to chuckle before raising one of his hands conciliatory.

“Relax, Nero. Since you are merely trying to do your job as best as you can, I’m not going to denounce you. Not yet at least.”

Nero half-closed his eyes when he ended his sentence with a mocking threatening tone.

“You know that it would be way less suspicious if you did, right?”

V shrugged softly, talking with a convinced tone without averting his eyes from Nero’s.

“Perhaps you are right, but as I’ve said I have nothing to confess, and I certainly don’t want to get you in trouble. So, feel free to continue with your investigation until you are satisfied”, he offered Nero a teasing smile, “besides, the idea of an attractive officer watching over me is not entirely unappealing.”

This time, a surely accidental, incredulous laugh escaped Nero, and V immediately thought that he wanted to see that expression in the officer again. 

“Shit, you’re crazy.”

V’s smile widened when noticing that Nero’s tone sounded a little impressed.

“All artists are, to some extent”, V grabbed his shoulder bag more tightly, “and now, as lovely as this chit chat has been, I’m already late to my appointment.”

“Let me guess: some seller interested in ‘_ The Canterbury Tales _’?”

V shook his head without losing his serene half-smile.

“No, a tailor”, when seeing Nero’s eyes open wide V continued, “there will be a rather important auction in a month to which my boss was invited, and she has been kind enough to get an invitation for me as well. So, I have to find a proper attire for the occasion”, after a brief pause during which Nero was obviously taking note of such a piece of information, V talked again in an impulse, “you could accompany me.”

Nero’s eyes snapped opened.

“To the auction?”

The misunderstanding was reasonable, but still V exhaled a laugh, missing the way Nero suppressed a small gulp.

“If you want to, perhaps Miss Nevan could arrange it, but I meant to the tailor. That way you can verify with your own eyes that I’m not doing anything criminal. Today at least.”

V was honestly expecting a straight refusal, so he was gladly surprised when, after a brief moment of hesitation, Nero nodded brusquely.

“Okay. Lead the way”, it was Nero’s turn to smirk when seeing his disconcerted expression, “what? Did you think I was going to say no to keep a close eye at you?”

V recovered a more neutral expression before speaking.

“Of course not. By all means…”, V leaned forward a little, satisfied when the action made Nero’s eyes linger down towards his moving lips, “...feel free to keep all the close you want.”

Nero snorted while beginning to walk next to him, but the involuntary red of his ears betrayed he had been affected by the slightly seductive component that V had purposely given to those last words.

* * *

‘_ Very well, Nero. You have my permission to investigate, but with discretion from now on. _’

Those had been his father’s words. And what was he doing right now? Accompanying the damn Poetic Burglar to buy a suit.

Definitely, whatever way you looked at it, _ that _wasn’t being discreet. 

In fact, Nero was pretty sure that his father would instantly fire him (if his glare didn’t kill him first) in case of discovering he had spectacularly failed in keeping watch, but damn, it wasn’t his fault! It wasn’t the first time he was forced to keep guard. He had accompanied Dante during a bunch of boring nights. One time his uncle even let him carry out the pursuit to practice (without Vergil knowing it, of course), and he fucking nailed it. But damn, even if that morning he had used all the tricks he had been taught, V had managed to notice without any difficulty, while having the nerve to pretend to be surprised when it was evident the man knew Nero had been there all along.

Fuck, V was good. And he had a fucking problem for being impressed by it instead of feeling exclusive annoyance.

“So, do you have any questions?”

Nero was in the process of trying to call Lady to tell her to come back to the police department without him when V suddenly formulated that question.

“Huh?”

V looked at him with an amused smile.

“Well, if you think I am that thief, shouldn’t you be trying to extract some information for me?”

Nero snorted loudly, giving up when the answering machine sounded for third time and deciding to send a message to Lady instead.

“Yeah, sure, because you’re gonna tell the truth, huh?”

V chuckled, briefly touching Nero’s shoulder when this one was going to continue walking straight to indicate him to turn right instead.

“I’ve told you already that I don’t have any reasons to lie, but in that case I will ask instead: who was that attractive gentleman who was with you yesterday?”

It took Nero a moment to connect the dots, initially unable to understand who V was referring to.

“You mean Dante?”, he huffed, “attractive gentleman? Seriously?”

“Don’t you agree?”

“Uhm, no? I mean, he’s my uncle. Thinking about him in those terms is weird.”

Nero insulted himself internally when V nodded to himself, realizing he had willingly revealed some personal information about himself to V. Angry with himself for having let his guard down so easily, he looked at V inquisitively to snap the next words.

“And you? Do you have any family?”

V looked at Nero ironically.

“I thought you weren’t interested in asking because I was going to lie.”

“Yeah, but I’ve changed my mind, so start speaking.”

Far from affecting him, his brusque tone caused V to show an amused grin, probably deducing that Nero was trying to get some information, even if it was fake, to feel better for his slip. At that moment they were forced to stop in a red light, at the other side of the street where the [ tailor shop ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/40/25/0f/40250f10166441a426d3a79716f48b64.jpg) was, moment in which V finally answered.

“I guess once I had, but I never got to meet them.”

Nero frowned lightly.

“You mean you’re an orphan?”

V simply nodded, looking at Nero with a teasing smile.

“It’s a pity. If I had any relatives, maybe they could convince you that I don’t spend the nights stealing expensive books.”

Nero didn’t say anything, finding quite curious that V could simply joke about such a matter when, still today, Nero didn’t like to talk about his mother. For sure his first assessment of V couldn’t have been less accurate. The thief wasn’t only hard to beat outside, but was also tough inside. That, or he was extremely good at pretending. Or both.

“Green”, V announced, causing Nero to stop staring at the thief to cross the street. 

The shop was bigger [ inside ](http://static.asiawebdirect.com/m/phuket/portals/phuket-com/homepage/phuket-magazine/rk-fashions-tailor-phuket/pagePropertiesImage/rk-fashions-tailor-phuket.jpg) than he looked from the street, and Nero found himself with his eyes about to leave their orbits when seeing the prices of the clothes exposed there.

“And you can afford this?”, Nero said suspiciously after V gave his name to one of the employees, “I didn’t know that being an artist was such a profitable job.”

“Oh, and it isn’t”, V said with a conversational tone, “but with the millions I got for the last book I stole, I can indulge myself.”

Nero’s jaw hung completely slack when hearing V, causing the thief to softly place his palm under his chin to close his mouth while chuckling to himself.

“So the rumor of cops not being granted with a very good sense of humor is right.”

Nero had barely recovered from V’s ‘joke’ and was about to threaten him to take such a comment as a confession (even if he was aware he couldn’t because he hadn’t read V his rights, dammit) when a woman on her mid thirties approached them.

“Mr. Vail? My name is Tania. I will be attending you today”, she looked briefly at Nero with an apologetic smile that looked rather sincere before addressing V, “I’m so sorry, we didn’t know that you would come accompanied. If your partner also needs to be attended, we can try to find room later in this afternoon schedule.”

“Oh, it will not be necessary”, Nero’s heart skipped a beat when suddenly V placed his whole palm on his shoulder and used his extra couple of centimeters of height to lean his chin on Nero’s shoulder, “he is only accompanying me because he does not want to take his eyes off me.”

Nero stared at V in disbelief, not expecting at all that _ public _comeback. He had to bite his tongue not to say something inappropriate when the woman’s reaction was to blush intensely while giggling a little, preferring to force a fake smile.

“Yeah, to make sure he doesn’t escape without paying.”

The woman laughed softly as V half-closed his eyes in fake offense. The thief then removed his hand from his shoulder, letting it slide softly down Nero’s left shoulder blade in a gentle contact that almost provoked him a shiver, before following the woman further inside the shop.

While wondering once again how the hell he had ended in that situation, Nero simply observed with his arms crossed how the Poetic Burglar was efficiently measured by the sales assistant before leaving to choose some clothes. When the woman left, V’s attention immediately returned to him.

“Are you sure you do not want to make the most of the visit?”

Nero huffed, sitting on a stool even if he was pretty sure that the object wasn’t devoted to be used as a chair by the customers. 

“Okay, first, like hell if I’m going to waste my monthly salary in this. And second…”, Nero signaled at himself, “...do you see me wearing a police uniform? Like hell if I’m going to wear another one voluntarily.”

V chuckled to himself.

“What a pity. I’m pretty sure a suit would look really good on you.”

Nero blinked twice when realizing that V seemed to mean that, if the way his eyes scanned him without any subtleness was any indication.

“Are you _ really _trying to flirt with me?”, he said with incredulity, causing V to tilt his head to the side a little with an ironic smile.

“It depends. Is it working?”

Nero rolled his eyes while snorting when V used that cliché sentence clearly on purpose.

“Nope. But if you confess and turn yourself in, maybe I think about it.”

V hummed, looking at him with curiosity.

“Are you that exigent with all the people who show interest in you or I’m just that unlucky?”

Nero really had to fight against the absolutely inadequate smile that threatened to appear in his lips when V didn’t have any shame in admitting being interested in him. Because for starters, as much as his intuition was telling him the man wasn’t lying, V was surely good at deceiving, so the thief could simply be fooling around to tease him. And second, even if V was interested, he definitely shouldn’t reciprocate. It was unethical to say the least, not to mention that voluntarily falling for someone he had to put into jail would imply an unprecedented level of stupidity that Nero was sure he didn’t have...right?

“Nah, I only play hard with the ones who point guns at me and handcuff me to pipes.”

Nero noted himself a win when having the last word, since at that moment the woman who had attended V came back, carefully carrying two different set of clothes. 

“My apologies for the delay. By basing on your current style, I have taken the liberty of picking some attires which are a little less common”, the woman said with a bright smile while V examined them with interest.

Nero’s eyes opened more when, after some seconds, V took the two attires to show them to him.

“Which one do you prefer? [ Green ](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB10sNBkgLD8KJjSszeq6yGRpXaq.jpg) or [ black ](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1j1g8NIfpK1RjSZFOq6y6nFXa7/single-buckle-PU-suit-jacket-fashion-men-s-slim-snakeskin-tattoo-leather-jacket-personality-punk-street.jpg)?”

While the woman giggled again, Nero was about to clarify the misunderstanding of him not having anything remotely romantic to do with V. However, he detected some kind of mute challenge behind V’s eyes, so he decided right then to pay back all that teasing-flirting somehow.

“I bet that the black is more convenient for your usual...activities”, Nero fluently pulled himself up to his full height and got closer to V, making the last hold his breath softly when he settled the back of his index finger against the man’s smooth cheek to caress it a little, “but the green one matches your eyes.”

Nero noted himself a second, enormous win when his even more ridiculous cliché sentence caused V to look at him stunned, clearly not expecting such an answer. Nero thought the embarrassment had been worth it when seeing such an expression in V, but at that moment V’s face changed, and Nero realized the man looked half-about to laugh and half-about to…

...kiss him, Nero thought while V did _ exactly _that, leaning forward to steal a quick, playful kiss from him. While Nero assimilated that, for second time, he hadn’t been able to see such a thing coming, V turned towards the woman, that by then had lost almost all of her imposed elegance and was fanning herself rather effusively.

“It’s decided then”, V said with a natural tone, as if kissing him was an extremely natural thing to do by then, “I’ll take both. Could I pass by later to try them on properly? Right now it’s rather late and I should be going back to work.”

“A-Absolutely, sir! And if you wish, I can save them for you for 24 hours if you prefer to come back tomorrow.”

“That would be quite convenient, thank you.”

After the woman left to proceed with the reserve, Nero kept staring at V, who talked with a conversational tone while answering the unasked question that had been hanging between them even while V spoke to the sales assistant.

“I owed you one. Now we are even.”

Nero sustained V’s emerald gaze, but even if he knew he should definitely feel annoyed with the man for being so fucking full of himself, the only thing he could think was that the kiss, once again, had been too short to fully enjoy it which, needless to say, was something he _ shouldn’t _be thinking.

Fortunately, at that moment his mobile sounded, putting an end to those thoughts and to the tension that was slowly floating between V and him. He looked at the screen and exhaled a sigh when seeing Lady’s name on it.

“_Where the hell are you?!_”, the woman had the nerve of say with impatience, “_I’ve been running in circles for almost 20 minutes in this car!”_

_ “ _What the fuck, Lady, I have called you three times!”

“_Yeah, but my mobile was out of battery and it has finally charged enough to call, but you could have sent a damn message telling where you were!_”

“I DID.”

Silence fell, during which Nero could perfectly picture Lady _finally_ checking her incoming messages.

“_Ups, you’re right, tehe._”

Nero literally facepalmed, causing V next to him to chuckle with amusement. At that moment Lady said that their presence was required in the police department since that afternoon they needed to attend a training course.

“Another one?”, Nero said with exasperation while automatically following V as this one approached the reception to finish the reservation process.

“_Yup, and you’re gonna love the title:_ ‘_ The best friendly techniques to deal with criminals._’"

“_Friendly _? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“_Pffft, nope. I guess it’s an innovative way of referring to avoid excessive violence.” _

Nero groaned, really wanting to skip what it promised to be a completely useless course in order to keep hanging up with V_— _to keep _ watching over _ V. However, he was rather sure that Vergil would pay extra attention to make sure he attended, and Nero wasn’t in the position to piss his father off even more, so he reluctantly agreed on meeting with Lady in the next street.

“Do you have another appointment?”, V inquired after he hung up. The thief said goodbye to the woman who had attended them, causing her to smile widely while still looking a little flushed. 

“Yeah, a really shitty one.”

“I would offer you to take you there”, V casually said when they were back in the street, “but I guess that your answer will be negative.”

Nero snorted, shaking his head.

“Thanks, but I prefer avoiding to arrive at the police department with the prime suspect of a robbery.”

“‘Unofficial’ prime suspect”, V corrected him, “you yourself said you don’t have any evidence to prove it.”

Nero was about to bite the bait to uselessly protest against V's argument when the long sound of a car horn caused him to be about to jump startled. Instead of following his indications, Lady had decided to park the car on the opposite street, and Nero sighed when seeing the evil smile present in the woman’s face. Well, goodbye to his wish of avoiding the woman’s teasing.

“Your transport has arrived”, V inclined a little his head towards him, “thank you for the advice and the company by the way. It’s been nice. We should do it again.”

Nero rolled his eyes, half-annoyed but also impressed of V’s nerve.

“You’re the first person I know who thinks it’s ‘nice’ to be under suspicion by the police.”

V chuckled.

“Well, as I said, artists are a little special. And if being under suspicion means we will be meeting often...”, Nero was surprised when V’s eyes were rather serious despite the sardonic smile playing at his lips, “...I will be looking forward to it.”

Before Nero could analyze how such a claim made him feel, Lady pressed the horn again, so he exhaled a hurried goodbye while walking towards the car. He ignored the crosswalk to reach the vehicle faster, and also the disapproving glances coming from the drivers waiting in the red light.

He entered the car in the copilot seat, crossed the door, put his belt on, and exhaled a long sigh, delaying at its maximum the moment of turning his head left to look at Lady.

“Not a word”, Nero snarled still without looking at the woman when seeing out of the corner of his eye the way her shoulders were shaking. Lady managed to fulfill his petition by biting her lower lip, though a deflated ‘_ Pfffff _’ escaped her while starting the car.

To make things worse, luck wanted that they were forced to stop next to the crosswalk, at the precise instant in which the light turned red again because of the traffic congestion. V, who had been surely waiting on purpose, passed in front of them at that moment. The man looked at Nero directly, smiled and said goodbye by elegantly moving the fingers of the hand that was grabbing the shoulder bag handle. Nero sighed when noticing Lady’s shoulders shaking again, but it was probably a jerk move to blame V for Lady’s attitude as well, so he answered with a short movement of his chin. 

Of course, the moment they left V behind, Lady talked with a tone that immediately put Nero in alert.

“So, first you let the Poetic Burglar kiss you. Then, you kiss the Poetic Burglar back. Aaaand not happy with that, you decide to go shopping with him”, Lady offered Nero a pointy smile, “you’re not doing things precisely in order _ but _I recommend you to fuck him soon or when we capture him it will be too late.”

“_ LADY _!”

The woman began to laugh while Nero shouted that with mortification. Nero rapidly pushed away the images that had popped up in his mind when hearing Lady and gulped nervously.

“Please, Lady…”

He didn’t need to complete the sentence, since Lady patted his thigh playfully.

“Relax. The official story is that we’ve spent all day in the car.”

Nero exhaled a relieved sigh.

“Thanks, Lady.”

Nero made the mistake of relaxing.

“And of course I won’t say anything about you two kissing again.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide in stupor while looking at Lady.

“But how did you_—_”

_ CRAP! _, he thought when seeing Lady’s triumphant expression, realizing he had fallen directly in her trap.

“Ohohoho, so you did!”

“God, I fucking hate you.”

“Come on, tell me tell me: who was the culprit this time? You? Him? Maybe both?”

“_ Lady… _”

“Oh, come on! I’m gonna cover for your super discreet surveillance: at least lemme have some fun~”

Nero cursed again while closing his eyes, rhythmically hitting the back of his head against the headrest while Lady continued with her tireless interrogation. 

For the first time since he was in the force, Nero was looking forward for the damn course to have something to think about that wasn’t those fucking unfair plump lips that, for the third time already, had left him wanting for more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Poetic Burglar will finally appear in the next chapter again :P


	5. Gathering information

While sitting in Nico’s sofa, V blinked twice rapidly, unable to believe the woman’s frustrated words.

“Wait, what do you mean you haven’t found anything?”

“Well, I mean exactly that!”, Nico exclaimed, crossing her arms and legs while reclining so hard against her rotatory chair that this one trembled dangerously, “I swear that I have reviewed the damn net up and down and there is absolutely ZERO information about someone called Nero Sparda!”

V sighed while softly caressing Griffon’s feathers, trying to calm the bird posing on the sofa arm after the animal got nervous for Nico’s constant shouting. It was Saturday afternoon, which meant that three days had passed since Nero had ended tagging along when he went shopping, and V had to admit that he had felt a little disappointed when not noticing any suspicious car parked outside the art gallery in the following days.

However, considering Nico’s current urges of murdering Nero even if the officer hadn’t done anything to deserve it, V wisely decided to keep such a feeling for himself.

“So the only thing we know, by basing on what Nero himself said, is that Dante Sparda is his uncle and that, by extension, the Chief of Red Grave Police Department is his father.”

Nico huffed after listening to his summary, reaching for a cigarette to lit it and calm her nerves.

“Yeah, well, _ that _and also that the Police Chief has a fanclub in Twitter because he’s apparently considered a FILF.”

While the woman took a drag on her cigarette, V innerly agreed with that popular opinion because, unlike Nero, there were several pictures of Vergil Sparda scattered around the net and V had to admit that the man was incredibly handsome. It was actually difficult to believe he was in his mid forties. Nero couldn’t deny he was Vergil’s son even if he wanted to, since he had clearly inherited the man’s attractiveness. 

“Look, are you reaaally sure that your pervy mind hasn’t somehow made that super-hot-officer up based on your wet fantasies?”, V didn’t even bother to say anything, showing a deadpan expression that caused Nico to raise her right hand in defeat while removing some ash from her cigarette with her left, “‘kay, ‘kay, jeez, there’s no need to put such a face, but seriously, finding so little about a simple officer is weird. Like, REALLY weird. Every single person leaves a trace on the internet, so all those embarrassing pictures that you take _ and _ post at some point of your life while thinking it’s the best idea ever can eventually be recovered, even after ‘deleting’ them. And yeah, of course it’s not something easy to do but, I mean, it’s _ me _ whom we are talking about, ‘kay? After three whole days of searching I should have discovered _ everything _about that guy: from his address to his favorite brand of condoms!”

“You had to choose that precise example, hadn’t you?”

“Come on, dude, for sure that’s an information you wouldn’t mind to know”, before V could even think about denying such a reality, Nico continued, “anyway, what I’m saying is that this Nero hasn’t left a single trace. There’s no social networks, old or current, associated to him, no images, no subscriptions, no information about his job..._ nothing _ . It’s as if the man didn’t fucking exist! Or as if someone had been extra careful so that it seems that way. And damn, when I was a reporter I’ve investigated _ a bunch _of important people who wanted to keep his life in secret, you know? But finding something about them was a child’s play in comparison!”

V nodded, feeling as confused as Nico was. However, the opportunity was too suitable to let it pass without teasing the woman.

“Well, there’s something else we have discovered”, when Nico looked at him with curiosity, V kept talking with an incredibly serious expression, “you’ve beginning to lose your touch, Nico.”

He kind of deserved the ‘glare’ she threw at him before exhaling the smoke of her next drag directly at his face, making him show a grimace while Griffon squawked in protest.

“Hey, if you have any complains, you can always try to search for a better hacker, duh.”

V chuckled when hearing that last expression, because Nico perfectly knew how glad V was of having found her and that he would be unable to find someone he could appreciate and trust more.

Five years had passed already since they ‘joined forces’, as Nico liked to call it. Around that time V was beginning to get tired of jumping from group to group in order to carry out thefts, realizing that people always tended to go for the too easy way even if it implied to make use of unnecessary and avoidable violence. Also, common thefts in which the main objective was limited to get some easy cash, though profitable, were beginning to look dull for him. He needed something more exciting. Something that entailed more difficulty but whose reward was worth the risk, more than pure monetary value.

However, in case of giving that turn to his current life, V had been aware that doing everything on his own would not pan out, and that he would need someone to trust, which could be difficult to find. Eventually, it wasn’t _ that _much complicated, and when a month or so had passed since his last robbery in a jewelry of Fortuna (that didn’t end with a casualty thanks to his intervention), a surprising chain of corruption cases being uncovered began to pop up in the news. They were apparently unrelated, but the fact that the police of Fortuna refused to give any details about how they had managed to suddenly expose all those people made V suspect about a third, unmentioned party involved. 

Even if his hacker abilities fell extremely short compared to Nico, they were pretty decent and above average, so with some investigation V learned that all the people put into jail had been interviewed or mentioned in a particular journal at some point during the past couple of years, not to mention that the own director of the journal was among the culprits. With a little more of digging, he learned that the person involved in all those articles had been someone called Nicoletta Goldstein, who had been casually fired a week prior the unconverings took place.

Already having a rather clear idea about what could have happened, V contacted the woman, that now worked as a freelance, with the excuse of having some information about a coverage. They met and V didn’t waste time in telling her his theory: that Nico had found out there was something fishy with those interviewed people, but since her boss was also involved he refused to do anything about it, preferring to fire her instead and causing her to take action.

Nico tried to deny V’s assumptions at first, but she was a terrible liar so she had eventually confirmed his theory. They got along, one thing led to the other, and by the end of that afternoon they reached two conclusions: first, that they were tired of working with people that did not allow to develop their full potential; and second, that common jobs were too boring for them and that combining their efforts could result in really interesting projects, so that’s what they did. 

It was incredible how many people was ready to pay a good sum of money for the services of hackers and thieves, so they decided that ‘thefts with meaning’ would be their speciality. They established a protocol to meet with their clients that would never involve personal contact in order to avoid being identified, but always demanding to know for whom they were working. After all, they could be criminals, but that didn’t mean that they were going to work just for anyone. 

They began with easy jobs that went from stealing information of companies of questionable reputation to recovering belongings that had been taken away from their lawful owners through also questionable legal means. As their successful thefts increased, they began to gain notoriety in the sector, which encouraged them to carry out more and more complicated jobs. 

And then, three years after starting collaborating, someone required their services to steal a book in Mallet and V began to be addressed as the Poetic Burglar, which made them decide to specialize in ‘books recovery’.

From then on, no matter how complicated the jobs could turn, V had never been spotted and Nico had always been able to extract the information they needed, but it seemed that their luck had run out when picking Red Grave as their next destination, with V about to be caught by Nero and Nico being unable to find anything useful to use against the young officer in case the worse came to worst. 

Once again, all the signs were shouting that the best thing would be to disappear, but now with Nico’s honor at stake (her words again, not V’s), she wouldn’t rest until finding something useful about Nero.

“Well, finding something compromising about him is not such a priority for now”, V reached forward to leave his cup of coffee on the table, “besides, I can always try to extract the information directly from him.”

“Wow wow wow, stop right there”, Nico pointed at V with her half-consumed cigarette, “I’ve never said I’m giving up on finding something about that cop of yours, so hold your horses for now, cowboy: gimme at least a couple of more days to find something useful before asking the man for another date.”

“It wasn’t a date”, V explained with patience while Nico stood up from her chair to grab a box situated next to the table, “I simply suggested him to accompany me and he accepted.”

“Yeah, and then you kissed him, so _ date _ ”, V rolled his eyes when Nico dropped the box on the sofa next to V, “but anyway, you both going shopping like a lovey-dovey couple has reminded me _ this _arrived this morning.”

V frowned, observing with curiosity at Nico opening the box. His eyes illuminated when the woman extracted some dark clothes from inside.

“Oh, the new outfit?”

“Yup”, Nico handled him a combination of [ pants ](https://img.alicdn.com/imgextra/i4/438888193/TB2FXL5eInI8KJjSsziXXb8QpXa_!!438888193.jpg) and [ hooded jacket ](https://www.hylete.com/media/catalog/product/a/c/accenthoodedjacket_left_3_4_bksl_8.jpg) as V stood up as well, “be thankful that nights in Red Grave are pretty cold because otherwise you would die from a heatstroke with those new pants.”

V immediately proceeded to try the new clothes. During those five years he had been forced to dress and undress in Nico’s van so many times that doing it in front of Nico was something rather natural. In fact, by then the unnatural thing would be that V excused himself to do so, which would have surely caused Nico to snap a not very delicate: ‘_ Dude, unless you have gone into surgery, there’s nothing ain’t seen already _’.

“So? They’re fit enough to mark your non-existent ass?”

V ignored her teasing while finishing unbuttoning his pants, crouching on the floor a couple of times to try their elasticity.

“They’re perfect”, he sentenced, proceeding to try the jacket next.

“Wait, are you going to wear it without a t-shirt?”, Nico inquired while V was putting the hood on.

“Yes, because as cold as nights can be, it’s still summer”, he showed a patient expression when seeing Nico biting back a laugh, “what?”

“Oh, nothing”, Nico smiled mischievously while crossing her arms, “actually being naked under it could come in handy: if that Nero catches you again, you can always seduce him while unzipping it stripper style.”

V blinked again, offering Nico a small smirk while lowering the zipper of the hood slowly as the woman had teasingly suggested, causing her mouth to fall a little slack.

“You mean like this?”, V asked mockingly, grabbing the sides of the jacket to pull it even more opened, causing Nico to snort while blushing a little.

“Tsk, have I ever said you’re a fucking tease?”

V chuckled, zipping up the hood again while accepting the new accessory: a pair of black [ gloves ](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB10B_8KFXXXXX8XXXXq6xXFXXXR/man-s-black-tight-style-first-grade-soft-nappa-leather-gloves-in-black-free-shipping-black.jpg_640x640q70.jpg).

“You have been the one in making the suggestion, not me”, V said in a fake innocent tone, causing Nico to snort again as he tried the gloves on and turned his hands into fists several times to test how they felt, “though I doubt I can use that distraction technique. Nero has seen part of Mr. Vail’s tattoos already so if, by chance, we meet again, it would be a little suspicious that the Poetic Burglar has such a similar pattern.”

“‘_ By chance _ ’? HAH! I’m sure you will seek that police ass on purpose. And seeing how you kiss each other whenever you are in the same place, you wanna bet how much it takes that cop to fully see _ and _ taste _ all _of those tattoos?”

V thought to himself that it was incredible how fast Nico had accepted his interest in Nero. Now he kind of regretted having told her about all the kissing involved, since her teasing hadn’t stopped (deservedly) growing since then. But well, the woman was doing more than enough for him (as usual), so he would accept every mocking coming from her with his usual stoicism.

“The gloves are perfect too”, V announced, ignoring on purpose Nico’s question and following laughs because he had learned that betting against her could be extremely dangerous (specially if drinks were involved). 

“Cool. Then it’s time for the cherry on top!”, Nico said, offering V a [ mask ](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61pfenjbC0L._SX425_.jpg) and frowning with confusion when V looked at her with a ‘ _ Really? _’ expression, “what? It’s really cool!”

“Seriously, Nico? Cat ears?”

“Hey, it’s not that easy to find masks for that long nose of yours, you know?”, Nico chuckled goofily to herself, “and now that I think about it there is a reaaally easy joke to make about being compensating for something—_ hey _!”

V stopped Nico from finishing her sentence by making _ her _wear the mask.

“My apologies but even if the rest outfit is flawless I will keep using my [ usual mask ](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81dhsYx2iOL._UX679_.jpg), thank you very much.”

“Tsk, you’re no fun!”, Nico protested while removing the cat mask from her face as V proceeded to re-dress with his previous clothes again, “you’d be super cute with this.”

“I presume you mean that as a compliment but, if I give in on this, what will be next? To wear a cat tail?”

“Oh, believe me, I have also searched for that, but I got some weird stuff with that search. Did you know that some of those are intended to wear them literally up your ass?”

“I didn’t and I definitely didn’t need to know”, Nico began to laugh when V said that with a defeated tone before finishing fixing his own gothic [ t-shirt ](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/43/ac/43/43ac438973e61d2b6156f3cf4e9b9a99.jpg), “and now, I think you have mentioned something about searching for our next book in distress to save.”

“Yup, I did. _ But _ what I haven’t told you is that, drum roll please,…”, Nico enclosed an arm around V’s neck while tapping at his chest with her opposite hand, “...I already have the _ purrfect _candidate.”

“Nico, don’t try it: I’m _ not _wearing that mask.”

“Okay, let’s do something: if I manage to blow your mind with what I’ve found, you will wear that mask in the next job, deal?”

V sighed with patience, but although his first impulse was to reject that deal, eventually he nodded and agreed on playing along because the woman had been nice enough to take care of the outfit for him, since those days he had been extra busy helping Nevan prepare the next week exhibition.

“Alright, deal. But how will you know that my ‘mind has been blown’? I remind you that I’m a rather good actor.”

Nico smiled widely with confidence.

“Because I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to pretend with this little guy.”

Five minutes later V saw the book Nico had found, and when he couldn’t prevent a curse of disbelief and anticipation from escaping his mouth as Nico exhaled a triumphant ‘_Oh, yeah _’, V immediately resigned himself to wear that cat mask for the next jobs. In plural.

* * *

Even if Nero had innerly hoped to get over that stupid training course in one single afternoon to be able to keep watch on V the following days, he wasn’t that lucky and spent the whole Thursday and Friday assisting to more and more boring-to-death talks, to the point that the only thing that prevented him from falling asleep was Lady hitting his chair from behind or Dante elbowing him not very subtly. 

Then the weekend came, and since Lady had kept her word of not mentioning anything about his ‘improvised date’ with V he agreed to help her finally catch up with all her pending work. Nero would have liked to rest on Sunday, wasting the damn day doing nothing on the sofa besides watching TV or playing video-games, but because of the damn compulsory courses he hadn’t had time to investigate anything about The Poetic Burglar properly, so he decided to spend the day in the police station.

When the officer in the reception saw him enter he greeted him without looking surprised, since it wasn’t the first time that Nero sacrificed a day off in order to keep investigating in cases that, theoretically, he wouldn’t be authorized to check if it wasn’t because Dante and Lady turned a blind eye to it. 

Nero had resigned himself to spend a rather boring day, but reading The Poetic Burglar file resulted to be way more entertaining than he had expected. It honestly felt as if he was reading a novel, and against his will Nero couldn’t help to feel impressed because all the thefts had been carried out in places apparently impossible to be broken into. Surely V was a professional, and even if he hadn’t forgiven the thief for the incident in the alley, he couldn’t deny that the man was more interesting, and original, and had way more style than the criminals that he was used to deal with 

Realizing that it would be probably dangerous to let his mind keep flattering a thief he should be hating, Nero decided to take a break and eat something while watching some silly videos in YouTube to kill the excess of neurons devoted to think about V. After that, he finished reading the reports and proceeded to search a little more about Mr. Vail.

Predictably, he didn’t find any criminal record associated to him, but the fact that there wasn’t much information about the man himself with the exception of a rather standard job profile just served to confirm Nero’s theories about V being using a fake, provisional identity. After all, considering V’s job, if the man had been an innocent civilian devoted to work in art galleries for sure he would have his own personal page talking about himself and his art, giving that nowadays it was the most extended, easiest method used by artist to begin to spread their creations. Also, with that physique and dressing style, V struck Nero as the kind of guy who would post photos on instagram by posing all casual and sexy without having to try hard…

...and okay, time for another rest, Nero thought when, again, he couldn’t help to remember how damn attractive V had looked the last time they met, and how frustrating it was that they were enemies because otherwise Lady was damn right: if things were different (meaning that the man wasn’t a fucking criminal) he would have already asked the man out, because that fucking sass and urge of always having the last word equally annoyed him and turned him on. Not that he was ever going to admit that though…

“Oh, I wasn’t expecting to have company in the office.”

With his heart pounding against his chest Nero exhaled a loud curse when suddenly hearing Trish next to him, causing the Captain to make an apologetic expression while placing a conciliatory hand on his shoulder.

“Oh my, I'm sorry, Nero. I didn’t want to startle you like that.”

Still feeling his heart in his throat, Nero nodded to indicate his soul was back inside his body after the scare. Trish chuckled softly and remained standing next to him, leaning a little over the table with her right hand placed on her waist back.

“Are you working in The Poetic Burglar case?”

“Yeah, I hadn’t had time yet to read the reports”, Nero explained, causing Trish to nod before offering him a concerned look.

“I learned about Vergil freezing your salary. Will you be okay? If you need any help with the rent you know you can count on me, right?”

Nero offered her a reassuring smile while shaking his head negatively. He had been expecting that Trish offered him help. After all, Dante and her had begun to date around the time he was 9 years old, so Trish had always been the mother he never came to have, seeing him grow up until becoming the man he had come to be.

For that reason Trish’s attitude was always softer and more affectionate when they were alone, even if she always kept a more professional attitude towards him on a daily basis because she knew Nero didn’t like to get any special treatment when being at work. Actually she was the perfect balance between Dante, who sometimes forgot that they were at work when telling anecdotes that Nero definitely wanted to take to his grave, and Vergil, whose kinship with Nero was only evident for their similar appearance but definitely not in the treatment, since Nero always felt that his father was stricter with him than with the rest.

“Thank you, but I’ll manage. Really”, he added when seeing she didn’t look very convinced, pressing her arm with affection before adopting a confident tone, “besides, since I plan to catch that bastard before this month ends, I’ll surely be able to pay in time.”

Trish chuckled softly and straightened her position again.

“So optimistic. I wonder from whom you have obtained that.”

When seeing the way Trish distractedly looked towards Dante’s desk, Nero couldn’t help to bring a topic that had been rounding his mind for a while.

“Hey...”, when the woman looked at him with curiosity he continued, “...isn’t there any possibility that you and the old man…?”

He let the sentence hanging, but Trish understood what he meant because exhaled a soft sigh while crossing her arms.

“Well, the first step for that to happen would be that your uncle tried to solve things between us”, after a short pause, her tone acquired a hint of exasperation, “but seeing how at ease he looks after our separation, I guess he is just fine with how things are now—”

“He isn’t”, Nero’s convinced words made Trish’s eyes open more in surprise, “he still carries that picture of yours in his wallet, and looks at it when he thinks no one else notices with _ that _serious face.”

Trish looked at Nero skeptically.

“You mean the ‘_ I’m going to kill Vergil this time for sure _’ serious face?”

Nero shook his head as an answer to Trish’s ironic words.

“No, the ‘_ I know I’ve screwed up but I don’t know how to fix it’ _one.”

Trish began to chuckle, as Nero knew she would.

“Yes, that one he uses it a lot”, Trish looked at him with an impressed expression, “I didn’t know you were that observant.”

Nero snorted.

“Hey, I may not reach Lady’s level of intuition, but I’m pretty awesome too”, after Trish chuckled again for his boasting he adopted a more serious tone and expression while looking at the woman, “but now seriously, it’s evident Dante still loves you, and that you leaving him affected him, even if he tries to mask it by being even more idiot than usual when you’re around. ”

Trish’s expression softened when hearing his words, but then she shook her head negatively.

“Love has never been the problem between us. It will never be. But Dante has to understand that we are reaching an age, and that some things that worked for us at our twenties have to evolve in our forties”, Trish sighed, shrugging her shoulders softly with a resigned smile, “with all the time we’ve been together I thought that he would be willing to do certain commitments, but I guess that perhaps I was asking too much from him.”

At that moment the bleeper Trish always carried in her belt began to pip and after taken a look at it she sighed.

“Alright, back to work”, she surprised Nero by leaning her hand on his shoulder to deposit a brief kiss on his forehead, “thank you for trying to help, sweetie. And good luck with the investigation.”

Nero said goodbye to Trish, and while the woman disappeared towards her office Nero swore to himself that he would put some damn sense on his uncle head starting that same Monday.

However, his intention of doing such a thing had to be postponed, because when he arrived at the police department the next day and saw the faces of everyone in the office, he immediately deduced something big had happened, which was just confirmed when seeing Dante display a serious expression that, this time, entered the category of ‘_ we’re in big trouble _’. 

“The Poetic Burglar has acted again”, Dante explained when Nero had barely approached his desk and was still opening his mouth to ask, “and this time, there have been casualties.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even it seems that I write the chapters so that they end in cliffhangers, I'm just horrible at estimating how long a chapter is going to be, so I decided to split it and this was the 'best' point ^^U Also, despite the more serious ending, the fic will keep being a mostly self-indulgent silly love story betwen cop-Juliet!Nero and thief-Romeo!V <3 <3
> 
> Finally I'm sorry because I know that I promised the Poetic Burglar would appear again in this chapter but I think it was time to tell a little more about V past, and well, that interaction between Nero and Trish wasn't planned but just kind of happened BUT, this time for sure, in the next chapter Nero will finally meet the Poetic Burglar again! Although under special...circumstances xDD


	6. Courtesy visit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, theoretically I should have updated my other fic but 1) Writing smut in my dead hours at work is a little difficult and 2) After reading some of the comments I decided to update this work first to leave it at a better point :P

“Vail, dear, after you finish what you are doing, could you please check that everything is under control in Section A.2?”

“Of course, Miss Nevan”, V said promptly, though his attention was still exclusively focused on placing a rather fragile figurine made of crystal inside one of the showcases, next to the others that were part of the same set.

He spent another couple of minutes verifying that all the figurines were perfectly visible from all the angles before finally fulfilling Nevan’s petition. V couldn’t suppress a small smirk when reaching the small room, remembering that it was the place where Nero had tried to make him confess about being the Poetic Burglar. In fact, the picture next to the wall against which the officer had pinned him was a little crooked, so he proceeded to fix it before beginning to check on the rest of the staff.

After indicating a couple of employees to change a picture that did not suit with the rest and reproaching a young woman who wasn’t using gloves to hang the remaining pictures, V came back to the main room. V let Nevan know that everything was going according to schedule and, after obtaining a satisfied smirk from the woman as an answer, he proceeded to finish arranging and cleaning the remaining showcases.

V tried to work the fastest and most efficiently he could in order to leave as soon as possible to meet with Nico, since he was _really _looking forward to carry out their next work and there were a lot of things they still had to discuss and plan. At least, his current job at the gallery was everything but boring, since it allowed him to see extremely unique pieces of art up close in a completely legal way and without the risk of being arrested for it, which was always a plus.

The ‘arresting’ part of the topic made V irremediably think about Nero. Since V was pretty good at multitasking, he allowed his mind to wander while continuing working. Eventually, all Nico’s attempts to find something, _anything_, about the officer had been fruitless, and V felt pretty intrigued about it. Perhaps Nero had something to hide as well? But such a theory did not convince him. Nero looked as the kind of guy who was exactly what he appeared to be, lacking any malice or bad intentions, so the idea of the officer having had some kind of dark past that needed to be erased did not suit him at all.

Definitely V wanted to find out the reason for so much secrecy related to Nero, and not only to have something to use against the officer, but because he honestly wanted to know more about the man who would irremediably end in his bed, figuratively speaking of course. After all, V had noticed that Nero was beginning to have difficulties to keep his guard up all the time, and the other day, jokingly or not, Nero had clearly flirted back, so the officer could pretend all he wanted that he didn’t enjoy their meetings and interactions, but what he couldn’t deny was the underlying attraction that showed up every time they met.

An attraction that V wasn’t bothering to hide, and to which, sooner or later, Nero would have to surrender.

It was true that Nero still behaved wary towards him, and that trust would always be something difficult (impossible) to achieve between them. Also, considering Nero’s stubbornness and undying conviction about his identity, the officer was never going to stop suspecting V, neither to try to catch him, _but_ despite all those hindrances V somehow felt that his fate had already been intertwined with Nero’s and that, one way or another, they were bound to end together.

V smiled to himself, thinking that perhaps he should stop refuting Nico’s theory of all the poets being stupidly romantic at heart, because for certain those thoughts did not correspond to the pragmatic person he usually was.

As if being summoned, at that moment V’s mobile began to sound. Since the people who knew his phone number could be counted with half of the fingers of one hand, he didn’t need to look at the name in the screen to know who was calling. Also, he didn’t even have time to say hello, because the moment he took the call Nico began to talk with a rather hurried, nervous tone.

“_Channel 3. Now_.”

V immediately tensed, because even if Nico was prone to get excited quite easily, this time it seemed she had a good reason to feel that way. After making up an excuse he came back to his office and rapidly turned the small TV that he had never used until that moment. He turned it on, put on the channel Nico had indicated him, and his eyes opened wide when reading the headline of the news currently being displayed:

‘_The Poetic Burglar strikes again leaving three casualties behind._’

“What?”, the incredulous expression escaped V without even noticing.

He then tried to focus on what the anchor was saying, which was difficult with Nico getting hysterical at the other side of the line.

“_At dawn on Sunday June 2, with the theft of The Canterbury Tales still recent, the Poetic Burglar has decided to act again by assaulting the Museum of Contemporary Art of Red Grave, located right in the center of the city. Three people were injured during this criminal act: two employees of the museum, who were found tied up and gravely injured, and a security guard, who unfortunately lost his life when trying to stop the thief, now considered a murderer.”_

As the anchor kept divulging false information, V’s stupor when hearing the shocking news gave rise to anger, and he began to finally pay attention to Nico’s outburst.

“_I-I don’t understand!! Why the hell they assume it’s been us?! They haven’t even said anything about what was stolen, maybe it’s not even a book! And what about the poem you always leave behind and—?”_

“They don’t care about those details, Nico”, V interrupted the hacker, pinching the bridge of his nose and taking a deep breath to calm down, though irritation was evident in his tone when talking next, “that’s how sensationalist press works: they want to draw the public attention above everything else, and since we are pretty famous already, they only wanted to ride that wave to give more impact to this incident.”

“_Oh, come on, people can’t believe that!_ _It’s not even been a damn week since we stole that book!! How easy they think it is to carry out a robbery like that?! It’s impossible it’s been us! Not to mention that we don’t do robberies but thefts: they should be fucking able to see the difference!!”_

“I honestly doubt they are”, V leaned against his desk while still watching the news, even if he knew it would only serve to end even angrier, “even if they find new evidence about us that proves us innocent of this robbery, they do not get any benefit from rectifying.”

“_Well, not for them, but what about our reputation?!_”

Despite the situation, Nico’s overly outraged comment made V chuckle softly.

“Nico, we’re criminals, remember? If news hardly bothers to clean the name of respectable people they unfairly stan, they are not going to devote a single second of doing it with us.”

“_Well, they fucking should because for starters we DON’T kill, damnit, and he called you a murderer!_”

V sighed, understanding perfectly Nico’s frustration because he was feeling the same.

Since the beginning, they always made sure to plan their works so that there weren’t any victims. That had always been their first rule. Obviously, not every theft had been flawless, and in a couple of occasions V had needed to use the shadows on his favor to leave an unexpected guard or possible witness unconscious, surely provoking some injuries as a result, but they were superficial. But now, thanks to the tabloids doing what they did best, and the police who apparently were way more incompetent than V thought they were, all that effort had been for nothing, and that second part was the thing that bothered V the most, because did the police really think he had carried out that robbery? Did _Nero _really think that?

Before V could keep making himself more questions, the anchor suddenly announced that one of their ‘journalists’ had gone to the police department to ask about the incident. The TV then showed several reporters at the entrance of the station. A blonde woman with an unmistakable air of authority was standing in the entrance, talking to them with a politeness that was deserving of admiration, considering the way all the reporters were trying to talk at the same time while making out of place question that called the competence of the police into question.

“..._as I have been saying during the past minutes, we do not possess any relevant information to share with the press_”, the Captain repeated with serenity, “_the only thing we can confirm is that the two civilians that were injured are recovering in the hospital as we speak. Any other information provided by the press cannot be taken as definitive until we carry out a proper investigation.”_

While the Captain’s next words were lost with the new string of questions devoted to the murdered guard, the door of the police station opened behind the Captain, and V felt his heart skip a beat when seeing Nero appear in the TV.

The officer approached Trish to whisper something in her ear. V’s suspicious about Nero having believed the story made up by the press grew when seeing the way Nero was frowning, and how his jaw looked more prominent than usual for the way he was clenching it. He looked quite pissed off, and V began to feel the same because one thing was that Nero didn’t trust him, but the idea of the officer believing that pack of lies was quite disappointing.

When the Captain and Nero were about to come back inside again, someone loudly shouted what they were planning to do with the murderer of that guard. When hearing that, Nico began to insult at the reporter who had asked that in really imaginative ways, while V decided it was time to turn the TV off before his teeth hurt for how much he was gritting them.

He was pointing at the TV with the remote, considering the possibility of going directly home to try to talk to Nico about their next course of action, when suddenly Nero, who had been about to enter the department after Trish, brusquely turned towards the man who had said that and, without the least hint of hesitation, he snarled the next words while the Captain looked at him with her eyes opened in stupor.

“_The Poetic Burglar is a thief, NOT a murderer”, _Nero signaled the crowd of reporters with a wide gesture while continuing talking in the same brusque tone, “_it’s been _you _the ones who have connected the theft from last week with this robbery, NOT the police, so make sure to include in your damn headlines that the press has a lot of free time to make up stories without knowing what the fuck they’re talking about. Thanks.” _

After Nero’s sudden (and, by basing on the Captain’s face, totally unplanned) intervention, more babbled questions came from the press, but V didn’t pay attention to them, not even noticing when the news came back to the rather shocked anchor. He simply stared at the TV, wide-eyed and with his jaw slack, assimilating that Nero had just stepped in for him.

“_Uhm...V, dude, is that Nero?_”

V nodded still in a dumbfounded state, before remembering Nico couldn’t see him.

“Yes. He is.”

There was silence at the other side. A considerable long silence.

And then V was forced to separate the mobile from his ear when Nico literally shouted the next words.

“_FUCKING MARRY HIM._”

V couldn’t _not _begin to laugh when hearing that, and when he finally returned to the main room the smile adorning his face lasted until late that afternoon.

When he left the gallery, V called Nico to meet in a certain place, because before keeping preparing the plan, there was something that he couldn’t possibly wait more to do.

* * *

Nero didn’t need to look at Trish’s face to know that he, once again, had screwed it up.

So, when the Chief’s office door closed behind him, he was already expecting the way Trish crossed her arms in front of her chest while looking at him with a serious look that would have been difficult to hold by anyone who didn’t have Vergil as a father. Speaking of whom, it was kind of a miracle that the Chief wasn’t in Red Grave at the moment and Trish was replacing him or he would be already packing his things.

“I don’t need to say what you have done wrong, do I?”

Nero nodded once, brusquely, but his look was determined when looking at Trish.

“But it wasn’t him. I know I’m right about that.”

Trish exhaled a long sigh while closing her eyes for a moment. She opened then again and when she talked, her tone was softer though still held a tinge of reproach.

“That’s not the point, Nero, and you know it. One thing is that you have a hunch and we decide to go along with it because, truth to be told, you are usually right, but that doesn’t mean you can make any claims about an ongoing investigation.”

Nero snorted, crossing his arms tightly.

“That didn’t stop _them _from saying all that bullshit even when they didn’t have any proofs.”

“Yes, but that’s what _they _always do, not us_._”

_Point taken_, Nero reluctantly admitted to himself when hearing Trish, so he averted his eyes to the side while scratching the back of his head, realizing there was only one thing he could say.

“Sorry.”

Despite the gruffness of his voice he was being sincere, and Trish realized because she offered him a small smile before approaching him, settling both of her hands on his shoulders.

“I know you do, the same as I know that you were surely right about everything you said”, Trish’s softly placed her fingers under Nero’s chin to make him look at her again, adopting a tone that sounded a little concerned, “but you can’t forget that, even if the Poetic Burglar may not be a murderer, he is still a criminal that you have to catch.”

Nero frowned.

“Trish, I know that.”

“Are you sure?”, Trish pressed softly, using that tone of voice that she had used several times with him in the past, and which indicated that she knew there was something else he wasn’t telling her.

Nero gulped softly, because he kind of understood was Trish was implying.

Since entering the force, the most basic rule in any investigation was: ‘_never reach a conclusion before examining all the leads_’, since making such a mistake could imply to let a criminal loose or, even worse, to get someone innocent behind bars. For that reason, no matter how impulsive he was or how fucking annoying the press could be, Nero had managed to always stick to that rule.

But that day, when entering the office and hearing Dante repeat what the news were saying, the first feeling that had invaded Nero had been anger. His investigation about the Poetic Burglar’s trajectory together with his interactions with V had made Nero be certain that the man wasn’t guilty...well, not for that case at least. And knowing that someone, that V, was being unfairly blamed for a really serious crime had pissed him off. Then, Dante had the great idea of asking him to deliver a message to Trish because they had received more information about the robbery, and when that idiot had addressed V as a murderer, he, without thinking as usual, had snapped at him _in public_.

So, certainly Trish had strong motives for suspecting that his motivation to catch V was lacking, considering he had defended the thief as if they were best buddies. However, even if his reaction had surely been disproportionate, Nero knew well what his priorities were.

“I’m sure, Trish. And I will catch him, but not for a crime he hasn’t committed.”

The determination of his tone seemed to convince Trish about his resolve, because the woman nodded with a smile while releasing his shoulders.

“Alright then. Now, back to work. In the meantime, I will make a couple of calls so that they remove the footage where you appear on TV.”

Nero got pale.

“Oh shit, there was a camera?”, he exclaimed as a shiver travelled down his spine when imagining Vergil’s reaction while watching him snap _all that _in the news.

“Yes, but since your father hasn’t called yet, we can safely assume he hasn’t seen it live or he would be already...reprimanding you”, Trish reassured Nero, causing this one’s heart to beat again, “so, we’re still in time to stop them from spreading it again in tonight news—”

Trish grew quiet at that moment, exhaled a resigned sigh and approached the door of the office carefully not to make any noise. Nero frowned, not understanding what she was doing until Trish opened brusquely, causing Dante and Lady to stomp inside with respective shouts of surprise. For sure he still had ways to go before reaching any of the woman’s intuition, if he ever did.

“Wow, you haven’t lost your touch, sweetheart.”

Trish exhaled a patient sigh when hearing Dante’s impressed tone and seeing the poor attempt of innocent smile Lady was offering them.

“Did you want something or were you simply spying as always?”

“Both~”, Lady said with way too much naturality, which made Nero bite back a chuckle because that woman’s lack of shame kept surprising him.

“Yeah, just wanted to let you know that you don’t have to worry about the kid appearing on TV again”, Dante thumbed up with his right hand while winking towards Nero, “we have dealt with it discreetly.”

Nero immediately looked at Trish in time to see the woman with a way too imperturbable expression.

“Could you please elaborate on that ‘discreetly’?”

“We went after the reporters that were recording and politely asked them to delete that footage”, when Trish kept looking inquisitively at Dante, this one exhaled a defeated sigh, raising his arms in defeat briefly, “_fine_, maybe I kind of hinted that they would end in police custody for a day if they refused to delete it.”

“Dante, that’s a clear abuse of authority!”

“Oh, don’t worry, they were pretty scared when your ex got all badass: they won’t say a word~”

“That’s not the point, Lady”, Trish looked at Dante again with a frown, “I could have dealt with it without you having to threaten civilians.”

“Yeah, of course you could”, Dante surprised Trish by signaling her eyes with a circular movement of his index finger, “but those eyebags say a tale about you overworking last night again, so at least this way you won’t have to deal with some extra annoying calls.”

Both Nero and Lady looked at the Captain inquisitively, both clearly looking for the same.

“But how the hell can you know there are eyebags under all those kilos of make-up?”

Nero was expecting that Trish glared at Lady when this one dared to say aloud what he was thinking (except the 'kilos of make-up' part). However, the Captain was busy looking at Dante in disbelief as this one shrugged.

“I just can”, Dante offered Trish a fond smile that didn’t have his usual goofiness in it, “so don’t overexert yourself, Captain. My brother won’t die if he has some pending work when he comes back, you know.”

Trish seemed to recover at that moment, offering Dante a smile like the ones she used to offer him before their breakup.

“I will keep that in mind”, that’s when Trish seemed to remember Lady and him were still there because she cleared her throat and with a more serious tone she dismissed them to go back to work, half-closing her eyes when Lady abandoned the room between giggles and Nero couldn’t hold back a happy smile on his own, relieved that, at least, something good had come from that day.

While Dante and Lady went to the Museum where the robbery had taken place, Nero had to spend a rather boring but at the same time stressing day in the office, helping other officers to attend all the fake witnesses that went to the station claiming to know something about the robbery.

The only thing Nero could think about when finally leaving the station was to do _nothing _for the rest of the night, so with that meaningful goal in mind he dragged himself towards his old but comfy apartment, which was rather near the station.

Nero exhaled a relieved sigh when the door closed behind him. He managed to win against laziness and climbed up the too narrow stairs to put himself comfortable before dozing off on the sofa until Dante arrived. His uncle had suggested to have dinner together, and he found himself unable to refuse that petition after the way the man had helped him with the press incident, though he hoped Dante didn’t expect a too clever conversation coming from him. Although it was Dante whom he was talking about. He had nothing to worry then.

After making a quick stop in the bathroom, he entered his bedroom without bothering to turn on the lights, since his sleeping clothes were stuffed under his pillow as usual. Once inside, Nero sat down on his messed bed to remove his boots, which ended nowhere to be found. He stood up then, proceeded to remove his t-shirt, and when he was about to pass it through his head his instincts went on full alert, finally feeling another presence in the room.

“For being a cop, your house security is extremely poor, officer.”

By when Nero tried to reach for his pistol in his trousers after hearing that familiar voice, it was too late. The sound of a gun safety being unlocked resounded in the room, causing Nero to curse for being unable to complete the action.

“My apologies for not warning about my presence sooner, but the private show was too good to stop it.”

Nero snorted, raising his arms while the Poetic Burglar, concealed up till then in the darkness of the wall next to the window, positioned in front of it so that Nero could take a glimpse of him _and _at the pistol he was sustaining in his right hand to point at him.

“You don’t need to change your voice, you know?”, Nero commented after V talked in a tone lower than the one Nero was used to, “I know it’s you, Mr. Vail.”

V hummed in credible surprise, leaning against the window ledge without stopping pointing at Nero with his gun. By then the officer could perfectly distinguish the thief: tight leather pants adjusting to the man’s long legs, a dark hooded jacket zipped up surely to conceal the tattoos of his neck, and a mask that only allowed him to see that annoying smirk that provoked contradictory feelings in Nero.

“So you think you have revealed my identity? I’m really curious to meet that ‘Vail’ you think it’s me—_please_, Nero, don’t try anything”, the officer felt his heart skip a beat for the commanding voice that V used at the end of the sentence, “if you try to go for your weapon, I’m afraid I will have to shoot.”

Nero was positive he hadn’t moved, so he didn’t know how the hell V had been able to read his mind. His confusion must have showed in his face because V offered him an arrogant smile.

“Body language, officer. Your shoulders went stiff for a moment, betraying your intentions.”

He felt equally annoyed and admired towards V for noticing it, but he tried to hide that second sentiment with a louder snort.

“Yeah, well, too bad that I know that you’re not gonna shoot.”

Even if the mask didn’t allow Nero to see V’s eyebrows, the way the thief tilted his head and the sardonic tone he used allowed Nero to picture how V was raising them in provocation.

“You look dangerously confident about my good will.”

As an answer, Nero began to lower his hands without feeling worried at all, which caused V to tense.

“You could have done so in the alley and you didn’t”, Nero retorted while reaching back to take a hold of his pistol, “I know you aren’t a murderer, V, so why don’t you stop with the little theatre, drop the gun and—”

The next thing Nero heard was V pulling the trigger.

When he opened his eyes again, he was sitting on his desk chair with V standing in front of him with his arms crossed and a patient smile in his lips. Immediately, Nero tried to stand up to lunge against the thief, discovering then that both of his wrists were tightly tied up to the chair arms with zip ties. His feet were strapped together with the same material as well, and even if his brain was telling Nero that he couldn’t escape, his instincts made him fight against the restraints nevertheless, making him finally accept the impossibility of escaping.

“I told you I would shoot.”

Nero glared at V when hearing his patronizing tone.

“You drugged me?”

V shook his gun softly in front of him as an answer.

“Tranquilizers. But don’t worry: you’ve only been unconscious for around 5 minutes.

The fuzzy image of the world spinning around him appeared in Nero’s mind, together with V managing to catch him before falling unconscious. Well, at least the bastard was considerate enough to prevent him from kissing the floor with his forehead.

“You know I can still shout for help, right?”

“Oh, but I know you won’t”, V smiled while taking a seat in _his _bed, crossing his legs while still sustaining the gun, “you are clever enough to know I will be faster by pulling the trigger. And I hardly doubt you are willing to be found in such a way.”

Nero gritted his teeth because V’s prediction was rather spot on, which caused the thief to smirk wider before talking again.

“So, now that you look more calmed down, let’s talk.”

Nero huffed, giving up in trying to break free while accepting he would be having this conversation with the thief wanting it or not.

“Okay, so, what do I owe the honor of you tying me up _again_? And how the fuck did you find out where I lived?”

V shrugged mockingly.

“Will you believe if I say I was simply in the neighborhood and that I happened to see you entering this building?”, Nero’s deadpan expression must have been expressive enough because V chuckled with amusement before continuing, “I spent quite a dull afternoon waiting for you to abandon your workplace.”

Nero hummed, leaning back against the chair while pointing at V’s clothes with his eyes.

“I guess you were dressing less flashy than the last time we met, or I would have surely noticed you.”

_Shit, this bastard is good_, Nero thought (with admiration against his will) when V immediately adopted a really credible confused tone.

“I don’t know what you mean. My clothes are practically the same that the ones I wore in that alley.”

Nero snorted loudly.

“Whatever”, he looked at V with curiosity, “but you haven’t answered my first question yet: why the hell are you here?”

V simply looked at him for some seconds, effectively making Nero a little nervous even if he didn’t let it show, before talking again.

“Let’s say it’s a courtesy visit. I only wanted to let you know that, tomorrow, a letter will be sent to the Police Department, announcing a proper theft by the end of this month.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide, realizing that V wasn’t joking in the least.

“Okay, you’re totally crazy”, Nero sentenced, “what the hell do you gain by announcing something like _that_? If you wanna get caught, there are easier ways to do it. Like releasing me right now, for example.”

V chuckled when hearing his suggestion, but then the thief's tone turned completely serious again, contrasting with the small grin that was still present in his face.

“Well, I may not be what you call an innocent civilian, but being accused of something I have not committed is not something that sits well within me.”

Nero looked at V inquisitively, trying to find something that betrayed the thief was lying, but to his relief he didn’t find any evidence.

“So you aren’t behind that robbery”, V shook his head negatively, even if it was more an affirmation than a question, but still, there was something that made Nero frown, “but I don’t get it. If you planned to send a letter to the department, why the fuck are you here _now_?”

The smirk present in V’s face was replaced by a more genuine smile that took Nero by surprise.

“Because I saw you in the news. So, I wanted to personally come here to confirm your theory about me being innocent of carrying out that robbery. And also…”, Nero wasn’t expecting either the grateful tone V used, “...to say thank you to you.”

Nero blinked several times, looking at V in disbelief.

“To thank me”, Nero repeated, “so you assault my house, shoot me, and tie me up because you want to thank me.”

V simply nodded, and the absolute oddity of the situation he was living caused Nero to exhale an incredulous laugh.

“Man, you _really _have to work on how to give thanks properly.”

It was V’s turn to chuckle.

“Technically this situation was your fault for drawing your weapon”, V raised his hand conciliatory when Nero’s mouth fell slack in indignation, “though I am still culprit of assaulting your house and tying you up: that I admit it.”

Nero cursed to himself, still not believing that The Poetic Burglar had decided to drop by his house with that only motive.

"You know, if you actually want to thank me…”

“I’m not going to turn myself in, officer.”

“...you could begin by setting me free. Or maybe pay for my damn rent since my salary has been frozen because of you.”

Nero was only being sarcastic, so he expected a snarky comeback.

To his surprise, V remained silent, and despite the mask covering most part of V’s factions, Nero could physically feel the way V was staring at him, as if deciding what to do next.

Eventually V seemed to make his mind, because the thief stood up and reached back to retrieve something from those fitted trousers that Nero bet were rather difficult to remove (did he _really _think that?).

Nero didn’t realize it was a wallet until V opened it to extract some bills from it to leave them on his bedside table, causing his eyes to snap wide.

“This is for your frozen salary.”

After recovering from his stupor, Nero immediately opened his mouth to snap he didn’t need anyone else’s charity, and much less coming from a thief because probably that money had been stolen.

However, his offended reply was lost when, without warning, V fluently settled on his lap, causing Nero’s breath to catch in his throat for the unexpected (pleasant) weight pressing against him.

The thief then leaned over him until their faces were inches apart, and after grabbing Nero's face between his gloved hands, V spelled his next words in a wanting voice that made a shiver flood through Nero’s tense body.

“And _this _is for defending me.”

The thief’s lips crashed against his with violence, punching a low grunt out of Nero as his member spasmed inside his jeans, wanting to come to life.

Oh shit.

Oh _shit_, V kissed even better than Nero had imagined and that was _bad_. And incredibly fucking good too, damnit.

The option of biting at V’s prodding tongue to make the thief stop didn’t even cross Nero’s mind. Instead, Nero gladly welcomed it inside, rolling his own against V’s as his hips unconsciously moved up against the thief’s in search of friction.

The first contact of their crotches caused their mouths to part ways when V’s head fell back with a surprised, appreciative groan that made Nero thirsty for hearing that sound again.

“_Nero_.”

That voice sounding so breathily ragged caused Nero’s member to become fully hard.

V kissed him next with renewed vigor, hands interlacing behind Nero’s neck while beginning to grind down against him with a steady firm cadency. Nero immediately fell into that rhythm, grunting against V’s glistening lips while coordinately bucking up as the thief pushed down, each rub of their clothed members provoking the thin layer of hair in Nero’s arms to stand and his stomach to clench.

“_Damn_”, Nero cursed with arousal, accepting V’s next biting kiss with hunger typical of a starving man, finding himself fighting against those unbreakable zip ties, his hands turning into fists because his need of touching V couldn't be granted.

Damn it, he knew this was bad.

He knew it was wrong to feel this way for a man he had to capture. He knew that, at that rate, the promise that he had made Trish was going to be at stake.

But right then, the only think Nero could think about was to set himself free to push V off of him and against his too small bed. He wanted to rip those damn fitted dark clothes off and see the thief lie bare in front of him, with those tattoos and that frustratingly sexy smirk as his only accessories. He wanted to keep kissing V until their lips ended bruised; to pin the thief down as V was doing at that moment, as punishment for being unable to touch him now; to fuck V to the next day as the thief raggedly moaned his name like he had done before but again, and again, and again—

“Kid? Are you at home?”

As if a bucket of ice water had fallen on them, Nero’s thoughts were shattered. His heart began to beat hysterically when hearing Dante downstairs, their wild making out coming to an abrupt stop when V hurriedly separated from him while Nero cursed nervously.

While insulting his past self for having given his uncle a spare key, Nero fought against his restraints without success. He was still trying to guess what the fuck to do to liberate himself when V suddenly extracted a knife from inside his boot and with a rapid, fast movement liberated one of Nero’s wrist.

While Nero was still assimilating that V had wasted the chance of simply leaving him there, the thief placed the knife on the bed before rapidly approaching the window, turning around to offer a goodbye smirk to Nero.

“See you around, officer. Let’s finish this another day.”

After whispering that, the thief dedicated Nero a last mocking nod before elegantly exiting the window, disappearing from his view. At that moment Nero heard Dante call his name again, so he rapidly reached for the knife to liberate his other wrist and feet, without stopping muttering a rapid string of consecutive ‘_Fuck_’s because he could hear Dante climbing up the stairs.

In retrospective, Nero should have probably shouted that V was right there, but the perspective of being found tied up _again _in his chair this time and with a rather noticeable boner would be a blow to his ego too big to stand. Besides, he really doubted Dante was fast enough to catch V in time even if he called for help, and, especially, being remembered by the cop who was found in such a position when the Poetic Burglar was finally captured wasn’t something he wanted in his file, or in his epitaph, since in case his father discovered he had let V go _again_ he could say goodbye to reach the thirties.

“Nero? Are you decent?”

In Dante’s language that meant: ‘_I’m gonna open this door in the following 5 seconds you want it or not_’. Fortunately, Nero had liberated himself rather fast, so he decided it was fucking time to teach his uncle a lesson about ‘privacy’, a word that apparently wasn’t in the old man’s dictionary.

So, Nero rapidly lay on the bed facing up, and after stuffing his hand under his pants but over his underwear he exhaled a loud fake grunt, just when the door was opening and Dante was beginning to say something about having brought something for dinner.

“What the fuck, old man, you don’t know how to knock?!”, Nero snapped, and seeing the mortified face Dante showed at that moment was so worth it that Nero almost forgot he had to pretend being super angry and embarrassed.

“Damn, kid, sorry, I-I…”, Nero actually had to bite his bottom lip not to laugh when Dante stuttered, the detective not knowing where to look after having found his precious nephew in the middle of a solo session, “...I’ll just wait in the living room until you...well...”

Making an ambiguous gesture with his hand Dante speeded out of the room, closing the door with a slam, moment in which Nero exhaled a muffled laugh before covering his eyes with a hand.

When his heart rate normalized again, Nero exhaled a long breath while the reality of what had just happened sank into him.

Nero exhaled a defeated ‘_Shit_’, realizing that his brief encounter with V had surely been one of the best almost-sexual experiences he had had in months, but he was too tired to think about all the complications such a thing could bring.

So, after making sure his member was back to dormant mode, he stood up to join his traumatized uncle downstairs, while thinking that his next encounter with Mr. Vail was going to be curious to say the least.

* * *

“Damnit, V, I almost suffer a heart attack!”, Nico exclaimed from the driver’s seat once V finally entered the van through the lateral door, speeding down the street as V joined her, “what the hell were you doing with your mobile?! Jeez, it’s a miracle that that old man hasn’t caught you. Why didn’t you answer—?”

Nico shut up when V dropped in the copilot seat next to her rather unceremoniously. The thief removed his mask, then his gloves and hood, and after letting his pushed back hair loose again he zippered down his jacket a little, the clothes sticking to his warmed-up body too much for his liking.

V took a moment to recover his breath, leaned his head on the backrest while exhaling a long sigh, and finally looked at Nico, finding the woman with a knowing look in her face.

“So…”, a smirk slowly formed in the woman’s face while moving her chin towards him, “...how did the _talk _go?”

V could only exhale a defeated laugh, knowing very well that Nico wasn’t going to believe he was _that _breathless just for climbing down Nero’s apartment. So, he accepted the bottle of water that Nico offered him and, after taking a sip, he looked back at Nico with a smile that surely came up a little idiotic.

“Better than expected.”

Nico shook her head with patience while throwing her cigarettes towards V so that he extracted and lit one for her.

“This is the pornest version of Romeo and Juliet I’ve ever seen”, she grew momentarily quiet when V placed the cigarette on her lips before talking again with a warning tone, “_but_ no more lovers encounters until the theft, V. I agree we owed the dude a thank you but we cannot take any more risks. Promise me.”

V leaned his elbow on the window and his temple on his knuckles, the feeling of Nero’s mouth and body still lingering. If it hadn’t been for the need of abandoning the building in a hurry not to be caught by Dante, V would have been unable to win against the temptation of riding Nero in that same chair. The mere thought of how Nero would have looked under him, trying to take control while being forced to submit to the rhythm V would impose, was enough to make heat settling down again.

Part of him thought it was a pity he couldn’t go to Nero as the Poetic Burglar sooner, since the officer’s inhibitions when that happened had proved to be way laxer than as Mr. Vail. However, he also thought that taking his time in knowing Nero better as a ‘simple civilian’ was not bad either, so when he answered Nico, he did it with sincerity.

“I promise, Nico. No more meetings as the Poetic Burglar until the theft.”

Nico nodded.

“Atta boy”, she stepped on the gas pedal, forcing V to grab the ceiling handle to avoid losing balance, “I would put the belt on if I were you. There are a lot of stuff we need to buy. Have you brought the money?”

V froze while being in the process of putting the belt on, and despite his effort to hide his (light) nervousness Nico noticed because she frowned while looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

“Whut?”

V hid a small gulp before summoning up the courage to talk.

“Well, now that you bring up that particular topic…”

No matter how conciliatory he tried to sound, Nico didn’t stop insulting him during the whole trip for having wasted their money 'to buy his lover's affection', and although V wanted to refute such an accussation, he prudently decided to keep silent to live another day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn Dante, why did he have to arrive xDDD?  
Hope you have liked the comeback of the Poetic Burglar even if it wasn't for a theft yet <3


	7. Never mix business with pleasure

“So, you got nothing?”

Lucia, the Chief Forensic of Red Grave police department, shook her head negatively in order to answer his question, her side braid swinging slightly for the action.

“I’m sorry, Nero”, the woman said apologetically, returning the transparent plastic bag containing the knife and the bills V gave him the previous night, “I have examined them thoroughly but they are completely clean. Not a single fingertip.”

Nero exhaled a sigh, passing a hand through the back of his neck. Since Lucia was one of the best in her field, part of him had hoped that perhaps the woman would be able to come up with some results about V’s true identity. However, considering that _no one _had managed to find any single clue about V up till that day, it was evident that the thief wouldn’t be that stupid to leave something behind that could incriminate him. At least, Nero had been clever enough to google beforehand that taking a saliva sample from him would be completely useless, since when kissing someone the DNA of that person would only remain in his mouth for an hour at most.

Also, even if Nero could have gone to the lab immediately after his...encounter with V, he wouldn’t feel good with himself by catching the Poetic Burglar by exploiting their complicated relationship, if it could even be called that way. Vergil would probably disagree with him on this (as usual), because despite his position the Chief was ‘the-end-justifies-the-means' kind of guy, but Nero wanted to capture V fair play, and the first step in order to achieve that was to discover which book the thief was going after. After all, even if V had fulfilled his promise of sending a letter to the department announcing a next burglary before that month ended, he hadn’t given any details about what he planned to steal or when he would carry it out.

So, Nero had some days of exciting searching ahead on him in order to convince his father that the thief wasn’t bluffing or trying to avert the attention of the police from the robbery he had theoretically committed.

Though, that search would be starting tomorrow, Nero thought after checking the hour in the ticking clock of Lucia’s lab, verifying it was almost time for him to go. That afternoon, there was something else he needed to do. Something that, in fact, could make that search less boring that it should.

“Thank you very much, Lucia”, Nero stuffed the small bag inside his jacket while offering the woman a hesitant look, “about this...”

Lucia’s expression kept being as serious as always, but she nodded reassuringly when Nero left the sentence incomplete.

“As far as I’m concerned, I do not know anything about any of those objects.”

Nero offered her a grateful smile, knowing that the woman would be able to keep the secret. She thanked her again, began to approach the lab’s main exit and stopped in his tracks when Lucia talked in an amused tone.

“Are you going to see him now?”

Nero turned around to look at the woman in disbelief to see her with an amused glint in her eyes. He exhaled a defeated sigh, calling himself naive again for assuming that Lady would keep their conversations about V from her girlfriend.

He was opening his mouth to try to justify himself when the woman talked again.

“I ask because both Dante and Lady are still in the office. So, if you want to attend your meeting peacefully...”, Lucia approached the back door of the room, “...I recommend you to leave the building through here.”

Lucia extracted an access card from her lab coat to pass it through the panel situated next to the door, opening it with a soft ‘beep’. Nero didn’t hesitate in following the woman’s advice, so after thanking Lucia for third time he left in a hurry, deciding to avoid Dante and Lady before these ones decided to follow him ‘for his safety’, since Nero perfectly knew it actually meant: ‘to satisfy their curiosity’.

* * *

V tried to show an interested smile while a so-called expert boasted about his knowledge in the sculptures exposed in one of the showcases. However, at the twelfth blatant inaccuracy that the man mentioned, V felt his eyebrow twitch and decided to make up a polite lie to excuse himself, deciding that it wasn’t probably wise to explain that gentleman, who was one of the exhibition sponsors, what an utter uncultivated fool he was.

The thief took a glass of champagne from the tray one of the multiple waiters were carrying around and took a small sip, choosing a secluded corner in the room to observe his surroundings, one hand sustaining the glass and the other across his chest.

He pinpointed Nevan talking with another sponsor who was clearly falling for her charms, and wondered how much money his boss could extract from that poor old man. Even if the woman had commented him that morning that he didn’t need to dress formally, he was glad to have chosen one of the [suits](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB10sNBkgLD8KJjSszeq6yGRpXaq.jpg) he bought a week ago, because the [violet dress](https://www.lovethispic.com/uploaded_images/99763-Sexy-Purple-Evening-Dress.jpg) Nevan was wearing was everything but casual, so the contrast between his boss and him when they welcomed the guests would have been too big.

After the initial brief presentation, V decided to unbutton the first two buttons of his green shirt and roll up the sleeves a little, because despite the air con was set at maximum, there were too many people and the atmosphere was quite suffocating. At least he had listened to Nico’s advice to wear a ponytail, because wearing his hair (which already needed a haircut) loose would have produced a rather disagreeable heat in the back of his neck.

When five minutes had passed and V hadn’t found any single person who looked remotely interesting to talk to, he began to flirt with the idea of abandoning the event the moment he saw an opening, or at least to abandon the room momentarily to get some fresh air. He was about to do the last thing when at that moment his mobile vibrated in the pocket of his pants.

V frowned while reaching for the device. He knew Nico would spend the night working on the gadgets for their next job, and when that happened the woman was able to disappear for entire days without contacting him, so it was really unlikely she was the one calling.

As he was expecting, he didn’t recognize the number appearing in the screen. After a moment of hesitation, he decided to take the call, since in the worst-case scenario he could get rid of it and buy a new one.

“Yes?”

His eyes opened wide, not having foreseen to heard _Nero_’s familiar, rude voice at the other side.

“_V, could you tell these pricks in the entrance that I know you?_”

It took V some seconds to understand what Nero was saying, and some extra ones to begin walking through the crowd, his shocked expression evolving into a pleased one as he approached the entrance of the art gallery for the perspective of seeing the officer so soon.

When he reached it, an amused smirk escaped him when finding Nero glaring at one of the security guards Nevan had hired for the event, his mobile still against his ear and his free hand turned into a fist that, at that rate, was going to impact against the two-meters man who looked funnily apprehensive for the younger man’s attitude.

“Mr. Vail, do you know this man?”, the other security guard that wasn’t suffering Nero’s fierce glare asked hesitantly, causing the officer to focus his attention on V, who answered with his eyes fixed on Nero.

“Yes, I do. He is allowed to enter.”

“Are you sure, sir? Because he has no invitation and Miss Nevan gave specific instructions about—”

“He is my companion”, V simply said, causing the guards to let out respective knowing ‘_Oh_’s as Nero frowned, which made all the more amusing to approach the thunderstruck officer and enclose an arm around his arm in the most natural way to guide him inside, “come on, babe. It has taken you a lot to arrive. I was beginning to miss you.”

“What the hell are you doing?”, Nero muttered while tensing, causing V to hush at him while offering the guards a goodbye nod that left them completely at ease.

“Letting you in”, V looked at Nero in fake confusion, “I thought that was what you wanted, officer.”

Nero snorted softly, releasing himself from V’s arm the moment they were safely inside the crowded gallery.

“I suppose I have to thank you then”, Nero commented, making V shake his hand in a soft dismissive gesture.

“It’s not necessary”, V offered him a charming smile, “seeing you after a whole week is a pleasant enough surprise.”

Nero shot an ironic glance at him that V returned.

“I think you should review your Math, V.”

“You are right. Actually, it has been six days since we met each other, not a week. My bad.”

“Nope, still wrong.”

“Am I? Then that must mean you managed to stalk me successfully without me noticing it because I’m positive I haven’t seen you since then.”

“Okay, first, it’s not ‘stalking’ but keeping watch.”

“I disagree because you have no actual motive for ‘keeping watch’ on me but, by all means, continue.”

“And second, I haven’t needed to do so, since the Poetic Burglar came to visit me last night.”

V opened his eyes wide in an expression of stupor that, according to him, was rather convincing.

“Did he?”, Nero nodded with his eyes fixed on him, as V’s tone turned credibly worried, “I hope he didn’t hurt you. I saw in the news that there was a victim in his last job.”

“Nah, he didn’t.” Nero stopped one of the waitress to take a canapé, that he proceeded to introduce in his mouth in one go without any difficulty even if it was surely devoted to be eaten in two or three bites, a talent that could come in handy in certain situations, V couldn’t help to think. “Though he tied me up again. That man is a kinky bastard.”

This time, even if V was pretty good at keeping his face imperturbable, Nero’s comment made the ghost of a grin appear in his face, unable not to remember how good Nero had felt squirming under him while uselessly trying to set himself free.

“You should be careful then”, V advised, signaling at Nero with the index finger of the hand that was sustaining the glass, daring to give his lower tone a faint hint of seduction, “perhaps that man’s intentions are of a sexual nature, and is plotting to bring you to his bed.”

Nero sustained V’s face without blinking, but the way the officer gulped when hearing that last sentence didn’t go unnoticed by V.

“Maybe”, Nero eventually said, taking another canapé before answering, “but surely you know the saying: ‘_never mix business with pleasure_’. So, not a chance that happens.”

V’s smirk widened.

“You are a hypocrite, officer”, Nero frowned at that, so V continued talking, “you’ve been doing that with me since we met.”

Nero snorted, raising his eyebrows skeptically.

“Really? How so?”

“Well, correct me if I’m mistaken, but I doubt that in order to do your job right you needed to kiss me the first day we met.”

“I just needed to verify who you were.”

“Or accompanying me to buy clothes.

“I was only _keeping watch_ on you.”

“Or deciding to pass by and make me company in one of the most boring exhibitions I have ever attended.”

A surprised laugh escaped Nero at that last remark, being his turn of looking at V with a wide smile, as if he was kind of happy that V was having a hard time.

“Really? It looks pretty entertaining to me, even if the average age around here is what? Fifty? Sixty?”

“I think you are falling short in your estimation”, V exhaled a, this time, completely sincere resigned sigh, “I spent whole fifteen minutes listening to a ‘prick’, as you would call him, saying absurdity after absurdity. If I got a dollar for each mistake he committed, I would be rich by now.”

“You mean richer?”, Nero signaled at the suit V was wearing with his eyes, “because I know for sure those clothes weren’t precisely cheap.”

V shrugged innocently.

“I have very few vices. Clothes happens to be one of them”, V signaled at Nero with his glass, “I’m sure you will also have your own as well.”

Nero huffed.

“Nah, don’t have much time for vices or hobbies”, Nero looked pointedly at V, “and even less now that I have to discover what the Poetic Burglar’s next job is going to be.”

V frowned, ironically feeling a little disappointed that the conversation had diverted to him again.

“You mean he is planning another theft?”

“Yep”, Nero said with a tone that was way too carefree, “That’s why I’m here: I need your help.”

This time V didn’t have to pretend he was surprised. He _really _was.

“My help”, V repeated, for once not knowing where Nero was going with this, and it seemed that the officer had realized for the fake casualness of his tone.

“Yeah. You yourself said we should contact you in case we needed your help, didn’t you? Well, we do, since I bet that, with your expertise in books, it wouldn’t cost you much to make a list about which ones are worthy to steal in Red Grave.”

V managed to keep his face imperturbable but only by a miracle, because among all the scenarios that had come to his mind, Nero going as far as directly asking _him _for help to catch _him _had never crossed his mind. 

“Of course you can say no”, Nero offered after V remained unexpectedly silent, talking with a tone that already showed there was a trick in that option, “but it you’re as innocent as you claim to be, I don’t see any motive why you should _not _ collaborate with the police. Because I bet you know, Mr. Vail, that doing that…”, Nero approached his face to V more, making this one’s eyes automatically linger towards the toothy grin that was now in the officer’s face, “...would be _really _suspicious.”

V’s eyes dragged up towards Nero’s blue ones as well, finding a victory light in them that made his jaw clench lightly.

Nero’s move right then was clearly unorthodox, and could look even ridiculous at first glance, but it was actually rather clever. Because V couldn’t refuse to collaborate if he didn’t want to give Nero a proper motive to investigate him, but accepting meant that he had to be believable helpful without actually revealing what he planned to steal, since a poor search would be as suspicious as not collaborating at all.

With that petition, Nero was forcing him to find a rather complicated balance to keep his facade while keeping enough secrets so that their new job wasn’t discovered, and right then V felt quite annoyed for not having seen this coming.

However, he also felt incredibly excited. Nero had managed to make him feel between the devil and the deep blue sea. The officer was working hard to become that challenge he would have never dreamed of finding, and _that_, as risky and dangerous as that game was turning to be, was making V _love _every second of it.

In fact, he was incredibly tempted to drag Nero inside his office, snap the door closed by slamming the officer’s back against it, and drop to his knees to see if Nero would be able to keep that cocky expression on his face when he made him come undone with his mouth.

“Mr. Vail?”

When a feminine voice called for him, V turned around with an expression that didn’t betray he had been fantasizing a second ago to orally please Nero until this one became a panting mess. He also managed not to show irritation when recognizing the lady around her fifties who was standing there, offering him a sickeningly sweet smile.

“Oh, Miss Davis. I did not know you would honor us with your visit.”

She was a sponsor he had met in a previous event Nevan had organized, and who hinted then that he would escalate incredibly fast in the art world if they became ‘acquaintances'. The only reason he hadn’t told that woman to ‘fuck off’ (as Nico would say very delicately) was that he could easily use her to gather information for future works, though V still had to consider if the prize compensated the effort because dealing with her horrible attempts of flirting was quite tiring.

“Yes, I wasn’t sure about being able to come but at the end I managed to reorganize my schedule to watch Miss Nevan’s exhibition”, the woman ogled at him from head to toe with a discretion that would make Nero look subtle, “I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed by the pieces of arts I would find.”

V didn’t know how he managed not to roll his eyes at that, or to comment that lady that she seriously needed to take proper class of seductions because her ‘compliments’ produced second-hand embarrassment. He left his empty glass on the next tray that passed by his side and was about to use another excuse to shoo the woman away in the politest way when he felt Nero’s hands landing on his hips, which caused him to look at the officer in surprise.

“Well, I should be going”, V was glad to have left his glass because otherwise he would have surely released it when Nero’s mouth was suddenly on his, kissing him with no tongue but with enough intensity to make several heads turn around to look at them, “can you accompany me to the exit, _babe_?”

V was still recovering his taken away breath when Nero dragged him towards the entrance and out of the gallery, as Miss Davis kept standing there with an expression that could rival with Munch’s most famous painting.

“So, do you think I could pass by on Friday to talk about those books?”, Nero frowned in confusion when realizing V was still staring at him, “what?”

“You kissed me. Again”, V informed, not sure if Nero had realized such a thing had happened, though the way he snorted next it seemed the officer was indeed aware.

“Yeah, well, I thought it was the easiest way so that that lady stopped being so creepy.”

A light tense silence fell, during which V tilted his head to the side, half-closing his eyes at Nero.

“And you thought I needed your help to deal with it?”

The light menacing tone escaped V automatically, since in the past some people had been stupid enough to assume that his delicate appearance meant he was weak, just to discover how wrong they were.

However, Nero’s only reaction was to bark an incredulous laugh, as if he found his comment completely ridiculous.

“You? Need help? Hell no. What I don’t want if to have to deal with _that lady_ because she has been robbed, or being found tied up in her home. We have enough cases already in the office to add another to the list.”

V’s eyes opened more for a moment, realizing that Nero was being deadly serious while thinking that he was able to do that out of retaliation.

Nero was right. He was more than capable to do it. And even if the fact that the officer could read him so easily should put him in alert, it only made him feel ridiculously happy.

“Anyway, on Friday I will pass by the art gallery, okay?”, Nero continued while V was still staring at him, “so make sure to have a provisional list to—”

The officer didn’t read what was going to happen next though, which was V grabbing his face to kiss him. This time, with tongue.

Nero initially tensed, but almost immediately V felt the officer’s hands on his lower back, pressing him more against him while getting more into the kiss.

They only stopped when V heard someone clear her throat behind him, which made him turn around to find Nevan observing them with amusement, her arms crossed in front of her chest, accentuating her already noticeable cleavage.

“My apologies to interrupt, dear, but I would need your help in around five minutes to explain the new collection to the newcomers.”

“Of course.” V said with a pretty acceptable tone, sadly feeling Nero’s hands retreating from him, “I will go right now.”

Nevan nodded, her eyes diverting to Nero then to say the next words in a seductive tone.

“Please, say Dante I loved our last meeting and that I’m _really _looking forward to the next~”

The woman then turned around to return to the gallery, leaving them alone on the street. V’s attention was drawn back to Nero, who seemed to be assimilating they were making out a second ago without any apparent reason.

“So, Friday”, V confirmed Nero’s previous comment in a conversational tone, “it’s a date then.”

Nero’s eyes snapped opened when hearing his last teasing remark, before huffing.

“No, it is _not_.”

“Are you sure, officer? Because some minutes ago you claimed you didn’t mix business with pleasure when, right now...” V grinned teasingly at Nero while settling his hands on Nero’s shoulders, “...you’ve proved me you’re more than capable to do it.”

Nero opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and exhaled a long sigh, looking V straight in the eyes before talking.

“Nah. It’s just part of my master plan: seducing you so that you eventually confess you’re the Poetic Burglar.”

V chuckled, not having expected Nero’s ironic remark, so he decided to answer in the same way.

“I’m afraid you will have to work way harder for that to happen, officer. But keep the good work, and who knows…”, V leaned forward to whisper the next sentence in Nero’s ear in his best bedroom voice, “...if you’re good enough, perhaps I end _moaning _my fake confession together with your name.”

V briefly nudged his nose against the shell of Nero’s ear, smirking to himself when feeling the shiver that ran through Nero’s body. He reluctantly removed his hands from Nero’s shoulders and, after enjoying the light blush adorning the officer’s cheeks, he nodded mockingly towards the officer, making this one’s eyes shine in recognition when seeing the gesture.

He then returned to the gallery, ignored the poorly hidden looks of curiosity he received from the people who had witnessed his ‘conversation’ with Nero through the glass doors, and carried out the explanation Nevan had asked of him with the best of his smiles, thinking to himself that, definitely, the exhibition had turned to be way less boring than he had initially thought.

* * *

Nero knew that the most basic rule in any investigation was: ‘_never reach a conclusion before examining all the leads_’.

Of course, there were many other ‘non-official’ rules made by the members of the force, such as: ‘_never forget to bring grassy food to surveillances_’, or ‘_never accuse a companion for being late if you don’t wanna have his death on your conscience’_, or ‘_never forget this is not Hollywood: warrants are there for a reason_.’

That night, while lying on his bed with his t-shirt raised until reaching under his pectorals and his pants and underwear slightly lowered, right hand wrapped around his member while working frantically on his erection, Nero had just come up with a new one to add to the list:

‘_Never masturbate for a criminal you have to catch, because if you do, you’re probably in your way to screw everything up really badly_’.

Nero gritted his teeth, feeling his balls tightening in a warning way as he increased the rhythm, his exposed stomach clenching painfully.

He tried not to.

He _really _tried not to.

But at the end he couldn’t help it, and a single, stuttered syllable eventually left his mouth.

“_V_.”

Spelling that alias aloud was the catalyst to come explosively, as if he hadn’t done it in months.

Nero remained lying on his bed, eyes closed and chest going up and down, waiting for his heart to normalize before reaching for the tissues of his bedside table and fix the mess he had done in his hand and abs.

He cleaned himself, threw the used tissue in the waste bin from the bed and failed, and after deciding it wouldn’t hurt to let the rubbish there until the next morning, he covered his eyes with the back of his arm, exhaling a defeated sigh.

Fuck.

Lady was right. And Dante. And he hated to admit it, but there was no way to deny it anymore.

He had a fucking crush on the Poetic Burglar.

But well, as bad as it sounded, and despite the cold sweat that invaded him when imagining Vergil’s face in case of learning about it, the good news was that it was a crush based purely and exclusively on sexual attraction.

Mostly.

Although yeah, it was true that he thought V’s sense of humor was exasperating _but _refreshing. And that he had defended the guy when being unfairly accused in the news as if they were best buddies. And that perhaps he enjoyed V’s flirting and comebacks more than he should. And that perhaps his excuses to kiss the thief began to be questionable. And that maybe that last kiss they had shared (and that Nero hadn’t even thought in rejecting) crossed the romantic line more than the sexual one.

...Okay, fine, maybe there was _more _than purely sexual attraction between them.

Maybe he actually liked V a little, and maybe he was curious to know more about him besides his obvious want to fuck him. Or being fucked by him. Or probably both.

However, even if he didn’t know how the hell he had ended feeling that way for someone, for a _criminal_, he barely knew anything about, as long as the percentage of ‘_I wanna kill/catch this guy_’ kept winning over the attraction, crush or whatever he was feeling towards the guy, it would be fine.

It wasn’t such a big deal. Nero could deal with that.

Besides, thinking that a criminal was interesting and hot and so fucking handsome he could make a living as a model if he wanted to wasn’t _that_ weird. Everybody knew that people had a thing for hot villains, and though Nero had never considered himself as someone who entered that category, he actually knew of officers in the police department that had confessed to feel attracted to criminals, so he was fine.

There was no reason to panic. There was no reason to ask his father to be removed from the case.

He was fine, and he had everything under control.

“_...perhaps I end **moaning **my fake confession together with your name._”

Nero felt his member beginning to harden for second time, and cursed loudly while reaching for the tissues again, realizing he would probably need to jerk off again before being able to go to sleep.

Well, at least the good news was that he wouldn’t be seeing V until Friday, so he had time to get his shit together and wrap his feelings under control by the next time they met.

Or, at least, that was what Nero thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter wasn't planned at all xD
> 
> Theoretically the meeting in the exhibition was going to be short and the rest of the chapter would be Nero and V meeting in other situations while the weeks until the next theft passed, soo that would happen in the next chapter ^^U (already fearing the count of chapters increasing...).
> 
> Hope you have enjoyed the flirting, banter and Nero being very little convincing about not liking V <3 <3 ^^


	8. Going to a dat...meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me when starting this fic: it will be 10 chapters and each chapter will be around 3-5k words.  
Me after writing the ch.8: _this chapter has 8k and the fic length is now around 15._
> 
> I suck at estimating, I should know it already ^^U I hope you at least enjoy it <3

“Everyone, can you pay attention for a second?”, Trish didn’t need to raise her voice much so that the whole office focused on her, “due to the recent two cases we are currently working on, the Chief will be returning to Red Grave tonight.”

A generalized, discouraged murmur traversed by the room, after learning that Vergil would return three days sooner than expected. Some people looked at Nero when hearing the announcement, causing him to respond to those annoyingly curious looks with a glare that efficiently encouraged them to mind their own business again. He was fucking tired already to get that reaction every time that his father was mentioned, as if he had something to do with the man’s more than complicated personality.

In the desk next to him Dante exhaled a long sigh, reclining back in his chair with his fingers interlaced behind his head.

“Well, freedom was fun while it lasted.”

His uncle’s comment provoked some chuckles among the other officers and detectives, and a reproachful glance coming from Trish that Dante answered with a wink. Nero was thinking that Dante had seriously a danger kink for behaving like that with his ex when Trish talked again, automatically silencing the remaining laughs.

“I doubt it is necessary to remind you that the Chief does not take delayed work as lightly as I do, so I _strongly _recommend to finish all your pending tasks by tonight”, Trish’s eyes dug on Lady, sitting in front of Nero, “_all_ of them.”

When Trish turned around to leave, several whimpers could be heard from the other desks, the loudest coming from Lady’s one.

“Alright. This is over. Tomorrow is my last day alive.”

“Don’t worry, love, you won’t be alone”, Dante observed at Nero with curiosity as this one stood up from his chair, “you leaving already, kid?”

“Yeah, I already finished everything and I want to study”, Nero frowned when noticing Dante’s inquisitive glance, “what?”

“Nothing. I’m only trying to discover if you are lying and plan to see your boyfriend again.”

Nero hushed at his uncle threateningly while looking around, afraid that someone had heard him, but everyone was busy sweating and praying to be able to have everything ready for the next day.

“Dante, if you address V like that when my father is around, I swear that—”

“Easy, kid, I won’t. I was just teasing you”, Dante said with a reassuring smile, before his eyes gained seriousness, “but if I were you, I wouldn’t call him ‘V’ either when Verg if present. It could give the impression than you are more intimate with the guy than you should, you know?”

Nero suppressed a gulp in time, because needless to say he hadn’t mentioned anything about V visiting his apartment, neither about his own visit to the art gallery the previous day, and much less about his revelation of him actually liking the guy _a little_.

“I’ll remember it. Thanks”, he said goodbye to Dante with a movement of his chin and after cheering Lady he rapidly left the office, not wanting to risk that his uncle decided to ask more questions about the matter.

* * *

Nero should have known that it was a bad idea to stay awake until late when he had to be punctual at the office the next day. So, when the next morning the alarm of his mobile sounded for third time and he deigned _not _to ignore it, he suffered a mini heart attack when realizing he only had 15 minutes left to arrive at the office.

After undressing and dressing in time record, he stuffed some not-very-healthy snacks he found scattered around in his pocket for a later, improvised breakfast and abandoned his apartment to run towards the office. Fortunately, the Police Department was a 30 minutes’ walk from his place and Nero’s physical condition was among the best in the force (if not the best), so he managed to run there and arrive a couple of minutes before the time limit.

“That was a close call”, the officer in the reception joked when Nero crossed the door in a rush, entering the main office when the clock marked 7:59.

Nero immediately knew that Vergil was there before pinpointing his father next to his desk, since the whole office felt uncharacteristically quiet. He approached his desk making use of all the casualness he could gather, refusing himself to look as tense as the rest of the people.

He noticed that Dante hadn’t arrived yet despite all the warnings, and that Lady was literally sleeping on her desk, her head placed on her arms while snoring softly, that sight and the fact he was wearing the same clothes that the previous there showing he had probably spent the night there.

Vergil, who had been examining one of Nero’s multiple papers scattered around his desk, turned around when hearing him approach.

“You are almost late, officer.”

‘_Hi to you too, dad_’_,_ Nero thought with sarcasm while remembering in time that probably snorting had never been the wisest way to reply to his father.

“Yeah, ‘almost’”, he answered in a tone that came more defiant than it should.

He waited for Vergil to half-close his eyes in angry reproach, but to his surprise the man simply returned the paper to his desk to continue speaking.

“I see that, at least, you’re taking your investigation about the Poetic Burglar really seriously. Trish has told me you already have a list of potential items that could be stolen.”

It took Nero a moment to realize Vergil was actually saying something positive about his job. After all it wasn’t very common that his father showed praise, and when he did it was so subtle that you had to squint hard to notice.

“Yes, although I haven’t finished yet. And I still have to filter them after it”, _and wait for V’s report_, but of course he didn’t say that.

Vergil nodded once, approvingly, and surprised Nero by taking the half-empty bottle of water that he had in his desk.

“Keep up the good work then”, Nero’s eyes opened more when, without changing his expression or his tone, Vergil opened the bottle and poured its remaining content over Lady’s head, making the woman wake up brusquely with a high-pitched gasp, “sleeping in the office is not allowed, Detective Arkham. If you are in no condition to work properly, I recommend you to stay at home, accepting the consequent penalty.”

“Y-Yes, sir!”, Lady exclaimed, approaching her hand to her forehead in a military gesture that made Vergil’s eyebrow twitch lightly, before realizing the woman wasn’t actually mocking him by doing that.

At that moment the door of the office opened again and Dante entered with his usual carefreeness, the melody he was whistling stopping and turning into a resigned sigh when seeing his brother there.

“Damn, you sure are a workaholic, Chief. How can you be here already? Have you ever slept?”

Vergil clicked his tongue while Nero offered Lady some tissues from his desk so that the woman could dry herself, causing the officers closer to his desk to blush hard when she proceeded to dry her cleavage completely ignorant about their reactions.

“Well, someone has to actually get some work done in this office”, Vergil was sarcastically saying in the meantime.

“Hey, I get my work done!”

“Yes, but not in time. Speaking of which—”

“I know, I know, I’m late. I already told the rookie to put it to my tab.”

“Dante, should I remind you that this is _not_ a bar?”

Nero was already sitting and pretending to organize his papers while suppressing a smirk, since his father’s anger being directed at someone else was always a show to witness, when the phone of his desk began to sound. He frowned and took the call, as his father and uncle kept with their discussion that by then was being observed by the whole department.

“Yes?”

“_Nero, there is someone here who wants to see you. It’s about some information related to a case._”

Nero froze, praying that the visitant wasn’t the person that had automatically appeared in his head.

“How does he look like?”, he asked, not trusting the newcomer in making up a name if he was who he thought he was.

“_Uhm…_”, a short pause followed, “_tall, dark hair, tattoos..._”

_SHIT._

Nero decided that all the questions about V’s presence there could wait: at the moment, it was more important that the panic didn’t show in his face and that his father didn’t discover the Poetic Burglar was in the fucking entrance.

Fuck, what should he do?! Should he tell the officer to kick V back? Should he go to meet him?

V took the decision for him.

“_He says that if you’re a busy, he would send a proper email addressed to the Chief to arrange another meeting_—”

Livid, Nero stood up so brusquely that his desk and Lady’s one trembled. Fortunately, the woman was in a deep slumber again and when his uncle and father got into a fight the rest of the world disappeared around them, which allowed him to rapidly abandon the office without anyone paying attention to him.

Back in the reception Nero’s eyes were instantly drawn towards V, whose eyes illuminated when seeing him appear. The thief was standing in front of the reception, looking all relaxed while [dressing](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/d1/ee/59/d1ee59e947393b47ca26842b21159b89.jpg) uniquely as usual. He was carrying a [handbag](http://www.new-witch.com/images/8222/ACCSAC077.jpg) who looked rather heavy, and when approaching Nero noticed that the thief looked taller than usual due to a pair of lightly [heeled boots](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/80/bf/67/80bf677fd971a32acc61085f2049bb37.jpg), which forced him to raise his eyes to look at V when being at his level, something that annoyed Nero a lot.

“Good morning, officer Sparda”, V greeted, “I wasn’t sure if you would be here so early, but I see you are as hardworking as I thought.”

Since the officer in the reception was back to his own business, Nero didn’t want to risk to attract his interest again by strangling V, so he won over that temptation for the sake of talking with his best casual tone.

“Thank you for coming”, with his eyes buried in V he signaled with his head towards a door situated next to the one leading to the main office, “follow me, please.”

V did so, offering Nero an amused smile when he opened the door to allow V enter first. Once in the [corridor](https://marketplace.canva.com/MADFceVdbM4/1/thumbnail_large/canva-empty-long-office-corridor-MADFceVdbM4.jpg), Nero didn’t waste any time in taking V’s arm with force to drag him towards the first empty room, which was a [meeting area](https://site.ceosuite.com/ceosuitemy/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2014/11/lkg_JIT4543.jpg) that wasn’t usually used.

“What the fuck are you doing here?”, Nero snarled once he had pushed V inside and had safely closed the door behind them.

V rearranged his sleeve and left his bag on the table with a soft thump, displaying a serenity that had nothing to do with the nervousness Nero was feeling at the mere thought of Vergil finding him there, locked with V. Maybe it would have been a better idea to take V out of the police station? Yeah, fuck, definitely it would have. Why the hell hadn’t it occurred to him sooner?

“I needed to let you know that, unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend our appointment tomorrow”, V’s light apologetic tone sounded real, for once, “I completely forgot that this morning Miss Nevan and I had a trip to go pick up some relics and we won’t be back until tomorrow night, so I’m afraid we will have to postpone our date.”

“Okay, first, it’s _not _a date. And second, if that’s what you had to tell me, you could have simply sent a fucking text, you know?”

V looked at Nero with a small grin.

“Certainly, I could have, but since I had to pass by in order to go to the station, I thought it was better to tell you in person. After all…”, V’s grin widened, “...I didn’t want that the police thought I was refusing to collaborate. In fact, perhaps I should contact with the Chief in person to explain this situation—”

“_No_.”

Nero talked without thinking, and insulted himself when his answer only made V’s satisfaction grow.

“No?”

Nero didn’t know how V managed to make such a simple word sound so threateningly sexy, which made him insult himself once again.

He was trying to know how to fix his mistake when, in the blink of an eye, V had fluently reduced the distance so much between them that Nero was forced to lean his back against the door. The thief took advantage of his extra height to casually place his palm on the door surface next to Nero’s head, caging him there in a similar way than Nero did to him when they officially met in the gallery,

“Then, correct me if I’m mistaken, Nero, because I was under the impression that I was obliged to collaborate with the police if I didn’t want to be considered suspicious. But, by basing on your reaction right now…”, V leaned his face more towards Nero until this one could smell the man’s cologne, “...perhaps your companions in the force have not been informed yet about our...arrangement?”

Nero gritted his teeth, his hands turning into fists on either side of his body when realizing that V had managed to turn the situation to his favor.

As V had deduced, he hadn’t informed the others about his idea of making the thief collaborate, because first he had preferred to wait until seeing how his first meeting with V developed in order to see if doing such a thing could benefit them. That’s why he had suggested to meet in the gallery and not in the office, and probably also the reason why V had been able to reach that correct conclusion.

Fuck, V was so exasperating. He definitely shouldn’t have the hots for him, and _definitely _he should feel exclusively annoyed, instead of having to fight against the urge of pushing the thief out of him and towards that table, in order to kiss the expanse of his exposed neck until V groaned his name again. Because damn, he wanted to hear _that _again.

“Penny for your thoughts, officer?”

Nero exhaled a frustrated sigh when V teasingly said that, using a seductive tone that proved he had also deduced what was going through Nero’s head, at some level at least. Nero closed his eyes, exhaled a deep breath trying to calm down, and opened his eyes again to talk to V, who was observing him with amusement.

“No, they don’t know yet”, he admitted, causing V’s eyes to open more, clearly not expecting the prompt confession, “but you have a point. Maybe we should let Dante, Lady or the Chief know that you are willing to collaborate, so that they can arrange a proper meeting with you. I probably won’t be around though, since they are the ones in charge and my help won’t be too necessary. But hey, for sure your innocence will be proved beyond any doubt and I will be ordered not to investigate you _again_”, Nero approaching his face to V’s more, talking with an innocent tone that contrasted with his toothy smirk, “I bet you’d like that, right V?”

He knew he had risked himself a lot. If V agreed to what he was suggesting, Nero could say goodbye not just to the next month’s salary but also to keep working on the case, because for sure Vergil wasn’t going to be pleased when knowing he had taken the decision of involving V directly without properly consulting him beforehand.

However, he had the suspicion that, the same as he wanted to be the one in catching the Poetic Burglar, this one also had a strange of fixation in order to win against him. Nor against Dante, nor Lady, nor Vergil, or even the whole Police force, but _him_. A suspicion that was confirmed when V’s answer to his objectively beneficial suggestion was to frown, obviously displeased with the idea.

V stared at him for some seconds, the silence between them growing thicker before V exhaled a short chuckle and leaned forward to whisper the next sentence in his ear with a tone that sounded satisfyingly annoyed, and also a little impressed.

“You are quite a dirty player, officer. Toying with my feelings like that is not a fair play. But since, for now at least, I have the presumption of innocence on my side to protect me…”, Nero’s heart beat faster when V nipped at his ear, his hands passing to settle on V’s thin waist without noticing, “...I’m not planning to renounce to _you._”

Nero’s blood traveled south when V possessively drawled that last word. He turned his head to the side in a reflex action, with the intention of redirecting V’s lips to his mouth. His noses were already brushing and Nero was already feeling V’s breathing mixing with his own when a vibrating sound made V click his tongue with annoyance and separate from his face.

“Forgive me”, V stopped caging him against the wall in order to check his mobile, as Nero’s hand awkwardly abandoned the thief’s hips to cross his arms instead, after a brief moment of not knowing what the heck to do with them, “it’s Miss Nevan. There is something she forgot to take in her office so I need to come back to the gallery.”

Nero half-hated and half-admired how natural V sounded, as if having been about to make out again hadn’t been weird at all.

“So, would you be able to meet next week? On Saturday perhaps?”

Nero frowned when hearing the suggestion.

“Saturday?”

V, who was still typing in his also expensive iPhone, blinked before looking at Nero.

“Yes. Considering that you have basically confessed that this first meeting is, for now, unofficial, I think it would be preferable to carry it out in our free time”, V tilted his head to the side with a small smirk, “it suits my schedules better while you avoid having to give unnecessary explanations about being using a civilian for your investigation. It is a win-win situation.”

Nero half-closed his eyes at V.

“Yeah, and I bet that a whole week will give you enough time to prepare everything for your next job.”

V looked at him innocently.

“I simply thought you would appreciate a job well done, officer. Because as good as I am, I doubt I can elaborate a thorough list by _this _Saturday. However, if you actually believe I spend my spare hours plotting a crime—”

“I do.”

“—my door is open for you, officer. Even at night.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide when hearing V’s suggestion. He initially thought V was playing with him, but he doubted the want showing in the thief’s eyes could be pretended.

Maybe accepting the offer wouldn’t be that bad, and not _just _for the reason his second, lower brain was thinking off. Maybe V was crazy enough to guide him towards his real apartment, to the place where he planned his thefts. Maybe by making the most of V’s overconfidence he could even stop the theft from happening.

However, he decided that doing that would be a _really _bad idea. Things were messy enough as they were right then, so involving himself even more deeply with V was to ask for even more complications, as beneficial as it could be for the investigation.

He couldn’t allow himself to get closer to V and end liking him _even _more, so at the end he simply exhaled a long, resigned sigh and talked.

“Next week Saturday is fine by me”, when hearing his words V nodded, but the smirk adorning his face passed to acquire a hint of resignation and also...disappointment? “But _I _choose the place.”

V raised a hand conciliatory, his expression coming back to neutral once again.

“Of course, officer. You are in charge after all.”

The sardonic smile V was displaying removed all the seriousness of his words. Nero clenched his jaw, since it was evident that the thief was mocking him, but once again, the fact that his stupid lower half decided to react every time that V cleverly sassed him was fucking annoying.

Damn, why the hell couldn’t he feel attracted to _normal _people? Why the fuck all his _normal _relationships ended in breakups? Shit, maybe he was wrong in the head or something.

After making V swear he wouldn’t contact him until receiving his text (thing that V promised reluctantly), Nero opened the door, sneaked his head outside to make sure the coast was clear, and rapidly walked down the corridor followed by V, while praying not to bump into anyone.

For once luck was on his side and Nero managed to reach his destination without having crossed paths with any single soul. He knocked at the last door of the corridor twice. After some seconds it opened, revealing Lucia already dressed in her white gown. The woman looked between Nero and V with a light frown, but didn’t show any further surprise before asking a neutral ‘_Yes?_’.

“Can I use your backdoor again?”, Nero said, a pleading tinge seeping through his words. The woman blinked but almost immediately she stepped aside, silently indicating they could enter. V politely greeted the medical examiner, who returned the greeting while approaching the door to open it with her card.

“Thank you for the tour, officer”, Nero glared at V as this one nodded as a goodbye, “I will be waiting then to hear from you.”

V said goodbye to Lucia, who again returned the it, and left the place, the door closing behind the thief with another beep. Nero exhaled a long breath and turned towards Lucia, whose serious expression hadn’t changed although a hint of a small smile was on her face.

“There’s no need for those puppy eyes, Nero. I’m not going to ask. That way, I won’t have to lie if I’m asked.”

Nero smiled at the woman with gratitude.

“Next time I will bring a present. I promise.”

Lucia nodded once.

“Chocolates. Black if possible. I cannot stand milk one.”

With Lucia you could never know if she was joking or not, but Nero preferred to think she was being serious and made sure to memorize that information for his next visit.

* * *

** _June 15, Saturday_ ** ** _\- Two weeks for the end of the month_**

The cafe that Nero chose for their meeting was so far away from the police department that V concluded the officer had picked it on purpose, surely to reduce the possibilities of running into other police officers. V usually didn’t mind to walk, but this time he decided to go in his motorbike, since it still took him his good half-an-hour to arrive at the localization Nero had sent him a couple of days ago.

That had been the only time they had communicated during that week, though he hadn’t had much time to miss the officer. He had been pretty busy on his own working with Nico in order to continue planning everything. What Nico and him planned to do was probably one of the most ambitious up till that day, so it had been a luck that Nero rejected his proposal of investigating him more closely, or he would have been in serious trouble because getting everything ready was really time consuming.

Not that V had expected that Nero accepted the offer, though a part of him had innerly desired he would and had felt rather frustrated when his fantasies had remained as such.

After parking his motorbike, V removed his helmet and also his black overshirt before beginning to walk towards the cafe. The weather began to be quite warm, especially around 3 p.m., so V was glad to have chosen a relatively light [t-shirt](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/2f/98/cf/2f98cfb4d8f37651e86a0b7f9334fb44.jpg), since the disadvantage of being a lover of the gothic clothes condemned him to dress darkish, which wasn’t the best choice in summer.

As all the previous times when V met with Nero as Mr. Vail, he stopped thinking about anything related to his other identity before opening the door of the establishment. His eyes opened more in surprise, realizing that the place wasn’t a common cafe but a [library-cafe](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/be/ca/cf/becacf82813b7b363afcda0bd9d1db2d.jpg). He was still looking around with curiosity when he pinpointed Nero raising his arm from the other side of the room to draw his attention.

V approached the table where Nero was sitting, the whole wooden surface covered in books and annotations. His stupor must have been obvious because Nero snorted when he was finally next to him.

“Come on, say it.”

V blinked, honestly lost, not to mention it took him a moment to answer because it was the first time he saw Nero dressing completely [casual](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2539/0480/products/outlet-appeal-covrlge-men-t-shirts-solid-color-slim-fit-short-sleeve-t-shirt-mens-o-neck-tops-tshirt-1495511236641_2000x.jpg?v=1523465522), so even if his general style was pretty similar to his job clothes, there were some extra accessories V had never seen Nero wear before, such as a pendant who looked pretty expensive and a brown, leather bracelet in his left hand.

Also, the t-shirt was tighter than the ones Nero used to wear, which accentuated his front muscles and also the crave V felt for them.

“I beg your pardon?”, V managed at the end, after having been ogling at Nero his good seconds.

“Say that it doesn’t suit me to be here”, Nero pointed at him with his chin, “it’s written all over your face.”

V chuckled a little and hung his overshirt from the backrest. Among the two remaining empty chairs V chose the one in front of Nero and sat on it, with his handbag on his knees.

“I admit that you spending your weekends in such a place didn’t enter in my theories”, V looked at Nero with curiosity as this one began to organize his notes so that part of the table surface was visible, “what are you studying?”

Nero looked at him with an initial puzzled expression, as if debating himself between answering or not, but eventually talked.

“For the exam to be promoted to Detective. It’s in September.”

V nodded, looking at Nero with interest.

“I have read somewhere it could take years before being promoted.”

“Yeah, it takes around 5-8 years”, Nero cursed when a notebook pretty full of loose papers was about to fall onto the floor, which would have caused a pretty big disaster, “but that time can be reduced depending on how hard you work. Also, if you manage to solve a really big case you don’t even have to pass the exam.”

The look Nero dedicated him spoke volumes, which caused V to frown without realizing.

“So that’s the reason why you are so obsessed to catch the Poetic Burglar? To get a promotion?”

The tone came a little more sarcastic than intended, because the idea of Nero being interested in him exclusively to gain merits, as reasonable as it was, had never crossed V’s mind, and suddenly that possibility made V feel incredibly disappointed.

“No, it’s not”, Nero’s answer was so direct and determined that took V by surprise, “getting that promotion would be awesome, but the main reason is that that bastard has fooled me twice, so like hell if I'm gonna let him do it a third.”

V stared at Nero for some moments before exhaling a quiet laugh, relief invading him.

“Well, you know the saying: _Bad things come in threes_.”

Nero huffed, stuffing his notebooks inside his backpack.

“We’ll see about that”, once there was finally some space in the table and Nero was returned his backpack to the floor, the officer looked at V, “so? Have you brought the list?”

“Of course”, V opened his handbag and extracted a folder from it, offering it to Nero, “take all the time you need to verify that it is what you asked for.”

Nero took V’s indication to the letter. The officer spent several minutes reviewing the report that V had elaborated with Nico’s help in deep concentration, so at some point V excused himself to order something. His intention was to only buy a coffee but the woman in the counter insisted him to take a muffin for free, thing that he did with resignation. It wasn’t the first time that something similar happened to him. Once, an old lady went as far as saying him that he was ‘_too lanky and that he would never grow up like that_’ when it had been more than a decade since he left his teenagers years behind.

V sat back at the table, and when seeing that Nero still had half of the pages pending to review, he decided to try the muffin. It was a little too sweet for his standards, but above all quite tasty. He proceeded to eat it by taking small pinches with his fingers, alternating with sipping on his coffee while Nero continued his reading.

Finally, when another five minutes had passed, the officer exhaled an exasperated groan and snapped the folder closed. V looked at Nero with a knowing expression, putting what it remained of his coffee and the muffin aside to place his elbows on the table, resting his chin on her right hand.

“So? What is the verdict?”

Nero glared at him, but his tone had a hint of admiration impossible to mask.

“That you’re fucking crazy, that’s the verdict. You have given us a bunch of information and not just about possible items to be stolen, but also to upcoming events, places that keep books of extreme value, and even artists who are currently on Red Grave and that can be potential victims of theft”, Nero exhaled an incredulous snort, crossing his arms on the table over the folder, “damn, how damn confident are you that we aren’t going to catch you?”

V sustained Nero’s heated look for some seconds before finally speaking.

“Nero, in the light of this collaboration, do you _really _refuse to acknowledge the possibility that I am innocent? And that I’m actually willing to help you catch a criminal?”

Nero snorted so loudly that several people turned around to glare at them, but both of them ignored it for the sake of keeping with the staring contest.

“Good one, but I don’t buy it.”

V shrugged, smiling resignedly even if the gleam of his eyes kept being playful.

“At least I tried.”

They remained in a brief, curiously comfortable silence until Nero broke it.

“Why do you do it?”, when V had to pretended to be confused, Nero rolled his eyes and gestured impatiently with an ambiguous gesture, “_fine_: why do you think _he _does it?”

V knew that the best way not to let any unnecessary information slip was to stick to his facade, and say that there was no way that an innocent civilian knew how a criminal thought.

And if Nero’s eyes hadn’t shown a pure, honest curiosity, born from wanting to know more about him instead of from the need of investigating him, V would have done so. He would have made up a credible lie to divert the topic.

But he didn’t.

“Well, of course this is just an assumption”, V began with a neutral tone, “but, if he is half as cynical as I am, perhaps he discovered that accepting the rules imposed by society was less profitable and infinitely less interesting that following his own code, without having to depend on people who, eventually, would try to take advantage because _that _is how most part of our world works.”

Nero stared at him in silence for some seconds before nodding once, slowly.

“In other words, he is a selfish, pessimistic misfit.”

V chuckled when Nero gave such a resounding answer, surely to make him react.

“Perhaps. But I am sure that you can at least understand the advantages of not having to depend on a boss”, V’s tone became casual, “especially if it’s related by blood.”

Nero’s eyes opened more for a moment before ending half-closed.

“Have you investigated me?”

V nodded without showing the least trace of shame, passing to interlace his fingers to rest his chin of them.

“I assumed that you would do the same with me, since you insist on believing I am the culprit. So, I thought I owed you the same courtesy.”

Nero huffed, pointing his chin at him briefly.

“I bet you couldn’t find much, huh?”

V blinked twice, because even if Nero was pretty straightforward, he had expected it would take him more to bring up the topic that was still driving Nico mad.

“You’re correct”, V admitted, stirring the coffee to finally finish it, “and although given the poor state of your mobile it is evident you are not a lover of last technologies, it is curious to say the least that not a single result appears when googling your name—”

“I was kidnapped.”

V was about to spill the whole cup on the table when Nero delivered that striking news without any kind of preamble.

“What?”

Nero only nodded, not looking as bothered as he should after making such a revelation.

“Yep. It was soon after joining the police force. At that time my father and Dante were investigating a really creepy religious sect that kidnapped people to ‘convert’ them, which basically meant doing pretty bad stuff to them. They had started their ‘activities’ in Fortuna, leaving a bunch of casualties behind, but then they moved to Red Grave.”

Nero reclined back in his chair again, his legs bouncing up and down rhythmically, showing he was mildly embarrassed for remembering and mentioning whatever it was coming next.

“I was 19 at the time, reckless as fuck, and wanted to prove everyone that I wasn’t there just because of my dad. So, against my father’s orders, I began to investigate on my own, sniffed around where I shouldn’t, and a couple of nights later some lackeys of the religious leader barged in my apartment to take me to their ‘church’.”

V wasn’t even blinking while listening to Nero, showing the tension the boy wasn’t displaying.

“Lucky me, my father found out really quickly what had happened. I was rescued some hours later, when they had only beat me up and the real fun was about to start. After that, I was almost beaten up _again _by my father, suspended for a whole month, and my father decided to erase my trace, since he didn’t want to risk that more criminals tried to go after me or tried to use me against him”, Nero offered V a teasing smirk, “so I’m sorry for the Poetic Burglar, but he won’t be able to find much about me.”

Despite the joking component of Nero’s voice and his not-feigned lackadaisical attitude, V’s expression kept being utterly serious when talking.

“Speaking of whom, I’m sure that in case of having known about this experience, he would have never barged in your apartment.”

The possibility of having made Nero relive a traumatic experience caused that some uncontrollable guilt slipped in V’s tone, but Nero simply snorted, not looking bothered at all.

“Come on, I’m tougher than that. It’s true that the first nights after the kidnapping I used to leave the lights on and suffered from some nightmares, but when Dante insisted of wanting to sleep on my bed to protect me, I immediately overcame the fear.”

V began to laugh when the image of a younger Nero getting all embarrassed because of his uncle appeared in his mind.

“And having to be so careful about not leaving any traces does not feel oppressive?

“You tell me about it.”

V wasn’t ready for Nero’s quick remark, and he in fact forgot for a moment that he was Mr. Vail and not the Poetic Burglar, which made him half-open his mouth before closing it, causing Nero to snap a hand against the table briefly before letting a triumphant exclamation while pointing at him.

“I almost catch you there.”

It was complicated for V not to smile and show a light confused expression instead.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Nero rolled his eyes while V took the last sip of his coffee, before offering what remained of the muffin to the officer, who automatically took him without any reservation.

“Whatever”, Nero took a rather big bite of the muffin and after swallowing practically without chewing it, he talked, “and yeah, sometimes it is annoying as fuck to take so many precautions”, the officer averted his eyes to the side before continuing, “but I owe it to my father. He can be a gigantic jerk most part of the time, and he really sucks at parenting. Like, really badly. But what happened made me realize that, on his own way, he really cares about me. Because when he found me there, tied up and looking like shit..._Damn_. I had _never _seen him looking so angry. I think it was the only time when I saw _him _be scared, which, ironically, made him be even scarier. And if Dante hadn’t been there to stop him, I’m sure he would have wiped off the entire fucking sect all by himself.”

V hummed approvingly.

“He sounds like a really nice father to me.”

Nero snorted even louder.

“Hell, no, he’s _not _nice. He is arrogant, cold, strict, exigent...”, after a couple of seconds he reluctantly continued, “...and cool as hell. And probably he’s a better dad than what I give him credit for but fuck, he is SO annoying most part of the times.”

V smiled with amusement as Nero passed a hand through his hair with frustration, thinking that Nero had a rather marked cute side that he hadn’t noticed before. He was about to point out his new finding aloud, since he was sure that it would bother Nero, when this one suddenly opened his eyes widely.

“And wait, why the fuck I’m telling you all this?!”

Nero talked louder than intended, causing V to bite his lip not to begin laughing again when some tables hushed Nero to lower his voice, causing him to mutter a light embarrassed ‘Sorry’.

Yes, definitely Nero wasn’t just the hottest man V had ever met: it was also the cutest. A rather explosive combination that, up till that moment, V didn’t think it could result so attractive.

“Well, perhaps I am one of those people whose _innocent _presence encourage others to share their secrets.”

“_Hah_!”, again, some people turned to look at Nero reproachingly, “sorry, man, but the blame is on me. I’m always attracted to weirdos.”

Nero didn’t notice what was wrong with his sentence until seeing V smirk with satisfaction, which made him gulp.

“So, you _do _feel attracted to me.”

The blush was back, together with a clench of jaw that made V have the urge of leaning forward to nip at it.

Nero looked about to refuse V’s statement but eventually he exhaled a deflated sigh.

“As if you didn’t know it already, you _weirdo_.”

V’s grin only grew.

“Perhaps, but it is way more pleasant to hear you admitting it”, while continuing speaking, V reached with his hand towards Nero, beginning to soothingly circle his index and middle fingers on the officer’s palm, causing goosebumps in Nero’s partially exposed arm, “though I wonder, officer, if you would ever bring yourself to do something else about it.”

The table was rather small, which meant that it was feasible to kiss the officer by leaning a little forward, even if Nero didn’t move.

V was about to do that, especially after noticing the way Nero had poorly suppressed a gulp as his eyes lingered towards his lips, when _his _mobile began to sound, breaking the moment.

“Maybe you should pick up”, Nero said, destroying the moment completely after V let some tones sound, “you can talk here. I don’t mind.”

“Perhaps you don’t, but considering the glares we are obtaining already I prefer not to push our luck”, V argued while standing up, causing Nero to look at him with a expression that showed he didn’t buy the excuse at all, “can you watch over my things?”

Without waiting for Nero’s confirmation, and suppressing a small smirk when seeing the officer’s shocked expression after he purposely left his belongings in his care, V abandoned momentarily the cafe in order to attend Nico, who, as usual, began to hurriedly talk about a new idea that she had got without even giving him time to say hello.

* * *

Nero could see V talking on the street, since the thief had situated next to the establishment’s glass. He had tried to read V’s lips, just in case he managed to learn something relevant, but the bastard knew what he was doing: facing him when he was merely listening or answering with monosyllabic answers and turning around ‘distractedly’ when he did the talk.

When that happened, Nero’s eyes furtively travelled to V’s handbag resting on the chair.

He knew V had left it behind on purpose so that he felt tempted to take a peek inside, and he wasn’t going to lie: he was tempted.

Of course the most probable outcome was that there was nothing inside and V was only playing with him. Maybe V’s plan was that he looked inside to have an excuse to accuse him of going through his things without permission. However, the possibility that there was actually something incriminatory inside, and that V was just tempting his own luck to see how Nero reacted, was also there. He knew the thief was crazy enough to risk himself like that.

Nero looked towards V again, and when seeing that this one looked extremely focused on the conversation he decided to go all or nothing by leaning forwards to grab the handbag.

“Nero?”

He cursed, startled when hearing a familiar, soft voice calling his name from his right. He turned towards that direction, the opposite where V was, and his eyes opened more when recognizing the woman standing next to him.

“Kyrie”, after saying her name awkwardness settled between them, since they hadn’t talked at all since the woman dumped him two months ago, “I didn’t realize you were here.”

The woman exhaled a nervous chuckle, looking towards the entrance briefly.

“Oh, I have just arrived with some friends”, she smiled at him hesitantly, “can I sit for a moment?”

Nero looked at the third unused chair at the table before looking back at Kyrie. Truth to be told she hadn’t been the worst break-up he had experienced, so he nodded with a small smile, making Kyrie blush while taking a seat.

“S-So, did you come here to study?”

It was obvious that she was only asking to gain some time to calm herself, because she was wringing her shaking hands in a clear nervous state.

Nero had recently studied the lesson about how to properly treat with civilians in shock or in the process of suffering an hysteric attack, so even if Kyrie didn’t look _that _nervous (not yet at least), he made sure to put such knowledge into practice by adopting a soothing, relaxing tone while talking, choosing not to point out how nervous Kyrie looked because that could destabilize her even more.

“Yeah, I don’t have much time during the week and my neighbors are noisy as hell in the weekends, so I can only study here or at night.”

She nodded, but didn’t look more calmed at all.

“I see”, after a short pause, Kyrie blushed even more and continued with a more high-pitched tone, “T-This was the place where we met, remember?”

Nero’s eyes opened more for a moment, not having expected the comment.

“Yes, I remember. You couldn’t reach one of the top books so I helped you with and—”

And like that, Kyrie’s mouth was on him, kissing him with considerable intensity to be her. Nero was so shocked that it took him some seconds to pull back from the unexpected kiss, in order to babble the next words with confusion.

“Uhm, Kyrie, what are you—?”

“Nero, I know I’m being really unfair because it was me the one who suggested to break up”, Kyrie began with an apologetic tone, now grabbing his arm with both of her hands, “but my friends made me see that it was a mistake. It’s true that I could not stand that you risked yourself so much in your work, but asides from that, I really liked you! And I miss you”, Kyrie looked at him with her brown eyes shining with expectation, her hands grabbing his arm as if she wanted to prevent him from leaving, “so, do you think we could try again? Because you’re still single, aren’t you?”

Nero blinked a couple of times, still trying to understand what the hell was going on. He was still trying to find a way to tell Kyrie that he preferred that thing stayed as they were when, at that moment, a cold, utterly annoyed voice sounded in front of them.

“No, he is not.”

Nero’s heart stopped for a moment while looking in front of him, seeing V standing there, arms crossed tightly and his green glare fixed on Kyrie’s, like a serpent who was about to poison his victim with a lethal bite.

Kyrie gulped audibly, removed her hands rapidly from Nero’s arm, and talked with a trembling, thin voice.

“I-I’m so sorry. I-I didn’t know that Nero was with—”

Nero’s surprises weren’t close to end that day, since without letting Kyrie time to finish, V approached him, entangled his hand on his hair the best he could, and after brusquely pushing his head backwards in an almost painful way, the thief fiercely kissed him, his green glare still buried Kyrie’s astonished expression, silently saying a claiming, possesive '_mine_'.

At that moment Nero couldn’t do much besides groaning when V’s tongue forced his way inside, swirling around with expertise as the grip on his hair tightened. His pants began to feel tighter for the violent demeanor V was displaying, his half-erected member pressing against his denim trousers, and he was about to fully close his eyes to get lost into the mind-blowing kiss when out of the corner of his eyes he saw Kyrie rapidly abandoning the table hurriedly while exhaling a stuttered, scared ‘I-I’m so _sorry!_’.

Just when the woman was out from their sight, V let Nero’s mouth go, not without biting his lower lip as a goodbye, with enough force to make Nero hiss as a shiver of arousal traversed by his body.

“So, as much as I was enjoying our little meeting, I’m afraid that a matter has just came up that requires my immediate attention.”

Nero stared at V in disbelief when the thief talked with a perfect conversational tone, as if having kissed him _like that _a moment ago was something completely normal. V took a grip of his handbag and was about to continue talking when noticing Nero’s dumbfounded expression.

“Is something wrong?”, V inquired, quirking up an eyebrow, which made Nero show his best _‘Really, man?_’ expression.

“What was that for?”, he said, not very surprised when V simply blinked and continued talking in the same calm tone. 

“Well, it was evident that that woman was making you uncomfortable, and since I owed you one for scaring Miss Davis away the other day, I decided to pay it back.”

When hearing V’s reasoned explanation, which he knew it was utter bullshit, a breathless chuckle escaped Nero, since it was also obvious that V had impulsively acted out of pure jealousy.

And although such I thought shouldn’t make him hard...it did. _Badly_.

“Well, thanks a lot for watching over my comfort, V. You’re a true life-savior.”

V smirked when hearing his ironic reply, mockingly bowing towards him.

“You’re welcome, Nero”, V recovered his belongings and looked at the folder, “I hope it is useful. If you have any doubts about it, please, do not hesitate in contacting me again.”

_‘Just if I have doubts?’, _Nero thought, but fortunately didn’t say.

It wasn’t until V left the cafe and Nero was left on his own, wondering if he should actually try to follow the thief despite the little success he had the last time, when he remembered certain thing V had answered to Kyrie.

_“Because you’re still single, aren’t you?”_

** _“No, he is not.”_ **

Nero gulped, exhaled a long sigh, and decided to focus on comparing the report V had given him with his own investigation, determined not to think about the possibility of V having made such a claim not only to make Kyrie leave, neither about the wave of happiness it provoked in him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Theoretically in this chapter I planned to cover the month before the theft so that the next chapter would be the theft already, but Nero/V's interactions turned to be looonger than expected (as usual ^^U) sooo next chapter will focus on that.  
At least we finally got to know more about Nero's past :P
> 
> I promise I haven't forgotten that Nero is a cop and V a thief, since lately they aren't doing much that shows that xDD BUT more of that coming in the next chapter, I promise <3 :)


	9. You think too much

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, this week was quite busy at work and I was slower at writing than usual ^^U  
The outfits I had in mind for V and Nero in this chapter when being together are [this one](https://www.japanattitude.fr/images/16076/PUNKR0428d.jpg) and [this one](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1119/4370/products/BlackCottonLongSleeveT1_grande.jpg?v=1466186240) respectively :P

** _June 18, Tuesday - 12 days for the end of the month_ **

Nero had just emptied his tenth charger, managing to make every single shot impact in the middle of the target, when the door of the [shooting range](https://bristleconeshooting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/range.jpg) opened and someone stepped inside.

He turned his head towards the sound while loading the weapon, his eyes opening more when seeing Dante there.

“You’re still here?”

His uncle exhaled a soft, offended snort.

“What’s with that shocked tone, kid? It’s not the first time I stay until late, you know?”

Nero followed his uncle’s movements as this one took a pair of earmuffs and a weapon, situating in the free spot next to him.

“You right: maybe this is the second or third time you do it”, Nero replied with irony, causing Dante to chuckle briefly.

“Yeah, well, it’s not my fault to be so good that I don’t need to overwork myself.”

Nero rolled his eyes while the detective hit the button next to the wall with the side of his fist, so that the target moved backwards to the furthest side of the room. He perfectly knew that Dante worked way harder than people gave him credit for. When he was a child he remembered waking up in the middle of the night and seeing light coming from Dante’s room, betraying the man was still working. However, Dante couldn’t care less about what others could think, so he didn’t bother to silence the stupid rumors that said he was a lazy ass whose many cases had been solved out of pure luck.

He was about to mention something about it when Dante put his earmuffs on and began to shoot with an intensity that contrasted with his previous relaxed comment. Nero frowned, noticing at that moment that his uncle’s general posture was rather tense, though that didn’t stop him from making six consecutive perfect shots that were still better than his.

“You okay?”

“Yeah”, Dante answered without looking at him, reloading his gun before pointing in front of him again, “just needed some stress relief.”

Nero waited for his uncle to finish the next string of shots, now aimed at the target’s head, to talk again, looking at him with curiosity.

“Did something happen with Trish?”

This time it was Dante the one who looked at him with a surprised expression before exhaling an incredulous laugh.

“Damn, since when are you so intuitive, kid?”

“I’ve _always _been intuitive, old man”, Nero left his gun on the ledge and crossed his arms, fully facing Dante, “so, what’s wrong?”

Dante exhaled a long sigh and scratched the back of his head, a gesture that Nero had accidentally copied since being a teenager and that implied something made him uncomfortable.

“I think she is seeing someone.”

Nero’s eyes opened wide.

“What?”

“Yep”, Dante reached for another charger while talking with a tone that tried to be casual but spectacularly failed, “this afternoon she was dressing even more elegantly than usual, and when I passed by her office, she was on her mobile confirming a restaurant reservation for tonight.”

If there was something Nero had learned from his uncle it was that biting his tongue was something reserved to cowards or to people who actually thought things twice before acting, and he was neither of the two.

“And why don’t you simply tell her?”

Dante stopped midaction when he was about to shoot, in order to look at him with confusion.

“Tell her what?”

“The truth”, Nero said with impatience, “that you still love her, that you want to be back together, and that you are sorry for having screwed up.”

Dante stared at him with his mouth half opened before exhaling an offended snort.

“Hey, who says it was _my _fault?”, Nero showed his best ‘_Really?_’ expression so that Dante raised a defensive hand, “okay, okay, fine, of course it was. But this time, it’s not _that _simple to fix.”

“Why not?”

Dante offered Nero a resigned smile and removed his earmuffs, letting them hang in his neck.

“Because the problem isn’t about something I did, but about something I don’t dare to do.”

Dante’s answer combined with what Trish told him the other day made Nero build a theory about what was wrong between those two. However, before he could express his guess aloud, Dante released his gun and crossed his arms, leaning against his stall while looking at Nero with a teasing gleam in his eyes.

“And speaking about complicated relationships, how about the one you have with your thief?”, an exasperated grunt escaped Nero, which made Dante laugh, “_that_ bad?”

Nero realized that Dante had naturally changed the topic of the conversation, but he didn’t try to redirect it. As easy-going as his uncle could look, he was as stubborn as Vergil, so there was no way that he could make Dante talk more about something the man preferred to avoid. Besides, he could make use of the man’s advice, since he was pretty stuck in the case.

So, he told his uncle about his investigation, and about how he had involved V in it. He admitted with frustration that the information V had given him was so extensive that he was even more lost than he was at the start, and that he didn’t know how the hell to guess what the Poetic Burglar’s next job could be.

After he explained the situation, Dante remained thoughtful for a moment before talking.

“Have you two met since then?”, Nero shook his head negatively, “then maybe you should.”

Nero opened his eyes more.

“But what for? With what excuse?”

“None”, Nero’s eyes opened more, “just go, talk, and I’m sure that at some point he will have a slip that would give you a hint.”

Nero snorted, shaking his head.

“I doubt it works. He may be an overconfident bastard, but he is very cautious.”

“So you’re telling me that he has _never _lowered his guard with you? Not even once?”

Nero was about to answer affirmatively but at the last moment he shut up, remembering how V had answered his question about the Poetic Burglar’s possible motives.

“There you have it”, Dante said with a smile, reading the answer in Nero’s expression.

“But still if I go without a proper excuse, he will suspect something.”

“Well, you can always go with the truth.”

Nero huffed.

“Great idea, Dante: ‘_Hey, V, what’s up? I’m here because I have no fucking clue about what you’re gonna steal and I want to get more information from you_’”, a silence fell next, during which Nero blinked as Dante’s smile widened, “actually...maybe it works.”

Dante chuckled.

“That’s the spirit, kid”, Dante signaled towards the room exit, “come on, I’ll walk you home.”

Nero was about to make a joke about being old enough to be left on his own when Dante exhaled a dubitative ‘_Uhm…_’ and he got in alert.

“What?”

Dante adopted _that _fake casual tone Nero had learned to fear as years passed by, since it _always _meant trouble.

“Do you think we could stop by that restaurant first? It will be just a minute.”

Nero deadpanned at Dante.

“Are you really asking me help to stalk your ex?”

“Oh, come on, it’s not stalking. I’m only curious to discover who she is dating now.”

“Dante, that’s precisely what stalking is.”

“Come on, kid: I promised I wouldn’t tell Verg about you involving your boyfriend, so do this little favor to your favorite uncle, yeah?”

Nero exhaled an exasperated sigh, tousling his head with a hand without protesting for Dante calling V in such a way. He had already given up already in convincing Lady and Dante about it after all.

“Fine, I’ll tag along”, before Dante could thank him Nero pointed at his uncle with his index finger, “_but_ you have to promise me you won’t do anything stupid no matter who he is, okay?”

Dante chuckled and enclosed an arm around his neck while Nero kept looking at him warningly.

“You have my word, kid. No matter who he is, I won’t do anything.”

He should have known that _that kind_ of promises coming from Dante were as reliable as when his uncle promised he was eating healthy, since everyone knew his basic diet were pizza and milkshakes.

Nevertheless, Nero had been rather sure that in case Dante decided to break his promise, he would be enough to stop him. However, when they arrived at the restaurant in time to see Trish abandoning the place with her date, Nero couldn’t do anything but staring at the man in disbelief while Dante muttered a threatening ‘_I’m gonna kill him_’.

“Dante, _wait_”, Nero exclaimed when finally recovering from the surprise, beginning to walk rapidly after Dante as this one approached the pair with determined steps.

Trish was the first one to recognize them, the expression of astonishment that appeared in her face when seeing them contrasting with the imperturbable, only-slightly-confused one that Vergil was showing.

“Dante? Nero?”, Vergil, who was dressing in an expensive suit, looked completely unaffected by Dante’s angry aura, “what are you doing here?”

Dante exhaled a humorless laugh.

“I think that should be my damn line, brother”, Dante dug his eyes on Vergil’s and crossed his arms, “you didn’t waste time, did you?”

“Dante, what on earth are you saying?”, Trish exclaimed at that moment with a mix of confusion and impatience, making Dante look at her with exasperation.

“What I say is that you didn’t even wait for our bed to be cold before inviting someone else in.”

“Old man…”, Nero intervened, and not just because Trish was glaring at Dante in a way that would make a Gorgon look powerless in comparison, but because he had seen something through the transparent door of the restaurant that had made him realize something that _definitely _his uncle hadn’t noticed, “...I think maybe you should—”

But Dante was talking again, and for the way Vergil was simply observing the fuss Dante was making, it seemed that his father didn’t have the least intention of stopping him, preferring to see how his little brother ended hit and sunk by himself.

“And come on, love, among all the men you could go out with after me it had to be _Verg_? Shit, it seems as if you had done it on purpose only to piss me off—”

At that moment, the two rather important politicians that Nero had recognized through the door approached Vergil and Trish, while looking at Dante with a cautious expression. Since Nero was a little behind Dante, he couldn’t see the face his uncle was making, but he guessed it was one of pure mortification.

“Is everything alright?”, one of the men asked hesitantly towards Vergil, clearly detecting the thick tension that had fallen in the group.

“Yes, we were simply having a nice chat”, Vergil commented, not minding in the least if the politicians believed him or not before proceeding to politely dismiss them, since surely he had already got from them what he wanted.

The awkwardness of the situation grew even more when he and Dante were forced to stand there, observing at Vergil and an incredibly tense but always polite Trish saying goodbye to their dinner companions. Nero answered with a nod when the politicians also addressed Dante and him after a moment of hesitation, before approaching a limousine that had stopped in front of the restaurant.

“Oh”, Dante _very _cleverly said to break the even worse silence that had fallen after the two politicians left, “so...uhm... it wasn’t a date but a business dinne—”

Despite having been together for almost 15 years, it was evident that Dante didn’t see the slap coming until Trish’s naked hand impacted against his cheek.

Nero made a grimace, since the hit had been strong enough to make Dante turn his face. In fact, Nero was doubting if considering it a punch when Trish approached him while completely ignoring Dante, in order to talk with the warm tone she always used with him.

“I have called for a taxi in the restaurant. Do you need a lift?”

Before Nero could reject the offer, since he knew Trish lived in the exact opposite direction than him, Vergil intervened.

“I will take him.”

Nero looked at his father with surprise.

“I can go on foot. It’s a fifteen minutes walk from here”

“I’m going in that direction anyway.”

Nero knew that probably in Vergil’s language, that meant: ‘_I don’t mind to do that favor to you_’, so he was about to thank his old man when Dante suddenly talked.

“I could actually share that taxi.”

It was the first time in quite a long time in which Nero and Vergil looked at Dante with the exact same expression of disbelief when hearing him say that towards Trish. At that moment the mentioned vehicle arrived, and Nero was already expecting that the angry woman slapped-punched his uncle again. However, Trish limited herself to tell Vergil a last thing related to work and a ‘_Goodnight, Nero_’ addressed to him before leaving.

The three Sparda were left alone on the street, and the new silence that fell was broken by Dante, who exhaled a long sigh with his eyes closed.

“I could take you as well”, Vergil eventually said with a merciful tone, “if you pay your part of the gasoline, of course.”

Dante opened his eyes again and snorted before shaking his head.

“Nah, I think I’m gonna call Lady to see if she wants to hit the bars area. Maybe some drinks make me forget what an idiot I am”, Dante patted Vergil’s shoulder once before winking at Nero with a self-mocking smile, “see you two tomorrow.”

After Dante left, Vergil muttered to himself a resigned ‘_Fool_’ before signaling briefly with his head towards the other side of the street. Vergil had never been the most talkative person in the world, so they walked in silence towards his father’s car, parked really close to the restaurant. Nero sat down in the copilot seat and put his belt on while Vergil removed his jacket. His father left it on the back seats perfectly folded in order to drive more comfortably and finally entered the driver seat.

Nero expected to do the brief trip in silence, since in less than 5 minutes they would reach his apartment. To his surprise, Vergil had barely started the car when he spoke.

“So, Mr. Vail passed by the office the other day.”

Nero’s heart literally stopped when Vergil dropped those words in a conversational tone.

He stared at his father in disbelief, wide-eyed and with his jaw hanging slack, and before he could make the clever question Vergil talked again without averting his eyes from the front window.

“That meeting room where you decided to ‘secretly’ meet may not be used, but the cameras of that corridor still work”, Vergil smoothly changed direction by moving the wheel, “I find curious you didn’t think necessary to inform about the visit of your prime suspect.”

Nero gulped thickly, feeling glad that the cameras weren’t inside the meeting room because otherwise his father would have seen V pinning him against the wall while he did absolutely anything to prevent it.

“There was nothing to inform about yet”, he eventually said, crossing his arms while daring to be optimistic against his future results, “but I’m close to have something.”

Vergil remained silent for some seconds before talking again.

“I actually may see the advantages of getting close to Mr. Vail in order to get information. However, I do not think that it is necessary to remind you there are certain risks associated to getting too... _involved _with your targets. And that crossing certain lines can bring certain irremediable consequences.”

Nero sighed and shook his head.

“Don’t worry, dad. I doubt I can ever get Mr. Vail pregnant.”

Vergil half-closed his eyes at him when hearing his ironic reply, since that was exactly how Nero had come to exist.

“It would be something unprecedented indeed”, Vergil looked in front of him again, turning left this time, “but you can still end hurt.”

Nero’s eyes opened more when hearing Vergil’s reply. By when he assimilated that his father had showed worry about _him _rather than about the mission, they had reached their destination and he had to step out the car.

He answered Vergil’s brief ‘good night’ with a nod of his head and waited for his father’s car to disappear down the street before entering his apartment, deciding to go directly to sleep because the next days promised to be quite intense. Especially, on Friday.

* * *

** _June 21, Friday - 8 days for the end of the month_ **

V realized he had dozen off while sitting at his desk when the phone sounded and he jumped startled. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose while attending the call with his free hand.

After clarifying the doubt the receptionist had about some new materials they had received, V decided that he really needed to get some fresh air, and also a really charged coffee in order to compensate for the accumulated lack of rest of the past days. At least sacrificing hours of sleep had allowed Nico and him to go according to schedule, so as impossible as it had looked their plan at first, eventually it seemed that they would be able to carry it out without major complications.

However, after Red Grave they both had agreed on taking some months of resting, and not only to keep a low profile but also because they were still too young to die from stress. In fact, Nico had detected the other day her first grey hair and V had been extremely glad to have been in his apartment at the moment, so that the woman could only shout at him via phone without killing him.

After saying the receptionist that he would be back in half-an-hour at most, he abandoned the gallery in order to visit the [coffee shop](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/37/74/42/37744235ba69904de181d833c956249c.jpg) situated in front of the building. He soon realized the mistake of taking a rest during mid-morning, since most part of the workers of the area had decided to do the same and the place wasn’t precisely big.

Fortunately, most part of the people went in groups, which allowed him to sit in an abandoned high chair after making his order. He took his first sip and was about to check his mobile, in order to see if Nico had managed to fix the little problem she had come across in her last invention, when he felt someone standing behind him while clearly invading his personal space.

V exhaled an impatient sigh and adopted his best annoyed expression, which usually was more than enough to scare that kind of idiots away. He was about to turn around to glare at the stranger when this one dared to get even closer. V was seriously considering the option of ‘accidentally’ elbowing the idiot when, at the last second, his body somehow recognized the newcomer before this one spoke close to his ear.

“This time you haven’t seen me coming, huh?”

V’s annoyance completely vanished from his face, replaced by a surprised smile while turning around to look at Nero, who looked childishly proud for having done his work right this time.

“And last time neither, officer, even if you refuse to believe it”, V replied playfully, “must I presume then that this encounter wasn’t a fortunate coincidence?”

The officer leaned his right forearm on the counter while facing V, who was suppressing a chuckle for the way the jacket-clad men that were standing next to him a minute ago had rapidly moved to give Nero space.

“Today I had to patrol the area, so I simply decided to drop by.”

V raised an eyebrow, not believing the officer’s words.

“Really? I thought that it was mandatory to patrol in pairs.”

“Normally it is, but the department doesn’t have that many people to spare and this district is pretty calm.”

“I agree. Certainly I have never seen any criminals around.”

“You mean besides yourself?”

The thief chuckled, realizing he had served Nero the answer on a silver platter. The officer shook his head towards the waitress when this one asked him if he wanted to order something before focusing his attention on V again.

“You look tired”, the officer said, looking at the bags under V’s eyes. The thief simply shrugged softly while sipping at his drink.

“Summer is a particularly busy month. Several people are already out on vacation so it is the best time to plan the exhibitions of Autumn, which demands quite a load of work.”

“Yeah, and it doesn’t have to be easy to prepare a theft on the top of all that.”

V was glad for having some caffeine in his veins when Nero made that comment, because in case of having been half-asleep probably he would have made the rather big mistake of nodding instead of offering the officer a patient smile.

“In case I was doing that it would be complicated indeed”, V tilted his face with curiosity, “speaking of which, was my help useful for your investigation? Did you manage to discover what the Poetic Burglar plans to steal?”

V was expecting Nero’s reaction, which was basically to huff.

“Do you really think I’d admit it if that was the case?”

“Yes, I think you would”, V answered without the least hint of hesitation, “I think that if you knew what the Poetic Burglar is planning to do, you would tell me. To try to persuade me to stop.”

Nero snorted, shaking his head.

“As if that was going to work. It’s obvious you love to risk your neck, and that you’ll keep doing it no matter what.”

V took Nero’s words as compliment even if probably the officer didn’t mean them that way.

“Well, I do admit that in case of carrying out such a double life, I would try to enjoy it at my fullest. After all, those who control their passions do so because they are weak enough to be controlled.”

Nero hummed skeptically.

“To me it seems as if _those _are the actually clever ones.”

“Once again, you’re an hypocrite officer”, V raised his chin as the corners of his mouth curved in a knowing smirk, “it is plein evident you are someone who mainly listens to his instincts, so it is quite a pity that you don’t allow yourself to be driven by that passion you criticize in certain circumstances.”

The light seductive tone that V used at the end didn’t fail to make Nero suppress a gulp, and V regretted that the moment was broken with the sound of the officer’s mobile because he was curious to see how Nero would have answered to his flirt.

Nero checked it out briefly and exhaled a sigh, quickly typing something back. V observed the officer without bothering to hide his curiosity, causing this one to talk.

“My uncle asking for romantic advice”, V frowned lightly, wanting to know more about the story, but at that moment Nero signaled at the phone V still had in hand before storing his own back in his pocket, “what about you? It looked as if you were about to call someone when I arrived.”

V nodded, adopting his best conversational tone.

“Yes, I was. My wife is coming to Red Grave this weekend and I needed to know when I should pick up her from the station.”

Nero became a frozen statue when hearing his natural explanation, and V was extremely proud of himself when managing to keep his face completely neutral for his good full three seconds before beginning to laugh, causing Nero to exhale a curse.

“Ha ha ha, very funny”, the officer snapped while V offered Nero an amused grin, suppressing the urge of removing Nero’s grumpy expression with a heated kiss.

“You look quite relieved, officer”, V teasingly said when noticing the way Nero’s body had relaxed once again, “did you really believe it? I thought it was obvious where my interest lies.”

He took another sip and noticed how Nero’s eyes travelled to his lips briefly when he separated the cup from his mouth before returning his gaze. The officer’s blue eyes were truly stunning. V couldn’t help to daydream and imagine how they would look shining with lust and fogged by want. Someday. _Soon_, he hoped.

“Apparently in mocking me”, Nero retorted sarcastically, crossing his arms over the counter with his head turned towards V, “and about the investigation, I’m sure you’d understand that I can’t share anything about it with a civilian.”

V’s grin accentuated while setting the practically empty cup on the counter.

“Is that your way of saying that you do not have anything yet?”

This time, his prediction about how Nero would react to his provocation failed, since he was expecting that the officer frowned, or clenched his jaw, or both, not that the officer simply nodded.

“Yeah, I haven’t been lucky so far. So, I’m really considering changing tactics.”

V frowned with confusion.

“Changing tactics”, he repeated, not knowing what Nero meant with that and neither seeing it coming either when suddenly Nero got even closer, as if he had the intention of kissing him. V’s lips began to half-part on his own, but at the last second Nero’s mouth diverted to his ear to snap the next words.

“Yeah. Maybe I should simply drop the search and make you moan your confession.”

It had been quite some time since the last time V suffered such a powerful wave of arousal for mere words only. Such a thing must have showed in his face because when Nero separated from him, the teasing smile that up till then was in his face had changed owner.

“Hah. You’re not the only who knows how to tease—

“Do you mean it?”

V’s words escaped him without thinking, but he did not regret them.

“What?”

Now it was Nero the one who sounded confused, so V proceeded to be clearer.

He left his mobile on the table and shifted his position to be sitting facing Nero, casually placing his hands on Nero’s hips to encourage him to get closer again, thing that Nero did as if he was in automatic mode.

“Do you mean that offer?”

V’s eyes lingered towards Nero’s throat when the officer thickly gulped, meeting the younger man’s gaze again to find it shining with a mix of hesitation but undeniable interest.

“Would you take it if I did?”

V’s heart beat faster when Nero’s voice sounded slightly strained, as if the officer was aware he was making a mistake by playing along but was unable not to do so.

As if Nero was unable to resist to him.

That knowledge put a satisfied smirk back in V’s face. He began to lean forward, determined to convince Nero with his mouth about how extremely good it could be to finally listen _just _to his instincts and let himself go…

“Someone help! _Help_!!”

But at that moment a desperate shout sounded from outside the coffee shop, and V couldn’t help to think selfishly that such a thing had to be postponed.

* * *

The moment he heard that call for help Nero didn’t hesitate in pulling away from V’s dangerous spell to run towards it.

Once he was in the street his attention was immediately drawn to a boy who couldn’t be more than sixteen, and who was half-lying against the building’s wall with a sickly pale expression. A girl of the same age that was probably his girlfriend was kneeling next to him, sobbing and about to suffer a panic attack while uselessly trying to cover an injury on the boy’s lower stomach, which was producing a rather nasty red stain on his white hoodie.

“Everyone, let me through: Red Grave Police”, Nero ordered with a commanding tone, showing his badge at the people who crowded around the pair, “what’s happened?”

“H-He was stabbed”, the girl sobbed while Nero quickly examined the injury, “w-we were on our resting time and were going back to school w-when another guy approached a-a-and…”

At that moment Nero heard the sound of a mobile taking a picture.

He was about to punch the idiot who had done that but at that moment V’s voice sounded behind him.

“Did someone call for an ambulance or you were busy filming how this kid bleeds to death?”

V’s cold, crude critic made an effect on the people, who rapidly proceeded to do something useful to help.

From the girl’s babbling speech Nero managed to learn that her boyfriend had been messing around with a gang of dubious reputation, and that when trying to leave someone had wanted to prevent that from happening. He also learned thanks to a couple of witnesses that the one who had stabbed the teenager had continued down the street.

After leaving instructions of applying pressure to the injury and getting confirmation from V that someone had called for medical assistance he began to run down the street in the direction the people told him, thanking with irony that the area was so ‘calm’ or who knew what he could be dealing with.

It didn’t take him much to pinpoint the culprit. The guy couldn’t be more suspicious even if he tried, since he was walking really fast and didn’t stop looking behind him. Also, the fact that he began to run the moment he saw Nero vanished all the doubts the officer could have about the man’s guilt.

At that time of the day the streets were rather crowded, so even if Nero could have caught the criminal without trouble in a race, he had to be careful not to hurt even more people in his pursuit.

Just when the distance between them was finally decreasing, Nero began to mutter a low string of curses when the thug suddenly stepped in the traffic. The criminal approached a motorbike, pushed the owner out of it to mount it, and began to drive at a high speed.

Nero cursed again while stopping in his tracks. He was about to call to central to tell about the fugitive when at that moment he heard another motorbike extremely close to him.

He turned his face towards the recognizable sound of a expensive vehicle and his eyes opened wide when seeing V driving it.

“Do you need a ride?”

Nero’s body acted before his brain. He rapidly sat behind V, and it wasn’t until the thief speeded forward that he didn’t realize he was breaking at least a dozen of rules for what he was doing.

The good news was that he didn’t have time to regret his impulsive decision, since he was busier holding on to V for dear life as the thief drove towards the different streets with an expertise that made Nero be a little jealous and quite excited, even if the situation couldn’t be less opportune for harboring such feelings.

After some minutes of frenetic pursuit, the criminal made a kamikaze maneuver by driving directly towards an intersection soon after the traffic lights had turned red.

“Shit, we’re gonna lose him.”

“No, we are not.”

After determinedly saying that, V suddenly turned left, ignoring the rest of the cars honking at them in order to enter a secondary, really narrow alley. Nero was forced to hold his breath when V didn’t reduce the speed, increasing it instead.

“V”, he said completely in tension, “V, are you sure this is not a dead end—_V,_ _watch out_!”

Nero didn’t know how, but the thief managed to stick to the right wall in time to avoid the backdoor that was opening when they were passing by. Nero shouted a loud, apologetic ‘_Sorry_’ towards the employee that had been about to die while taking out the trash. He was about to ask V once again where the hell they were going but he didn’t need to: they soon appeared in a wider, emptier street in the precise instant when the other motorbike was coming directly to them from their right.

Nero cursed while V stopped the vehicle brusquely, blocking the path for the criminal who realized his only escape was to run away by leaving the stolen vehicle behind. This time Nero wasn’t going to allow it, so he dismounted rapidly and just needed to run some seconds after the criminal before successfully tackling him against the ground.

The thug tried to extract his blood-stained knife to use it against him but Nero grabbed his arm in time, immobilizing it behind his back with enough force to make the thug groan in pain.

“That shitty brat had it coming”, the thug who already rounded the thirties began to say as Nero reached back to take his handcuffs from his back pocket “he wanted to leave the gang even if he swore he belonged to us now—_argh_!”

The last pained protest was provoked by Nero closing the handcuffs all the tighter he could.

“He was just a kid, you asshole”, Nero hissed, causing the man to show a real scared expression when he placed his hand against the thug’s head and pressed it more against the pavement, “and now it’s when I should read your rights and all that, but basically they can be resumed in shutting your fucking mouth before contacting a lawyer who, I tell you already, won’t prevent that your stupid ass rots in jail for a while.”

Nero finished the rights reading by brusquely releasing the handcuffed man’s head, fluently standing up. He exhaled a deep breath, passed a hand through his head, and when he heard V’s motorbike approaching, he turned towards V to thank him for the help.

The words died in his throat when his eyes met V’s ones, since these were shining with a fierce intensity that caused Nero’s blood to travel south as his body heated up.

What happened next was a little blurry in Nero’s mind. He remembered talking briefly with a couple of officers after they arrived at the scene, and that he was glad to discover that boy would recover from the stabbing. But the only thing Nero remembered with clarity was V approaching him in order to spell the next words with a casual, slightly ragged tone that didn’t match the want showing in his expression.

“I think I left something behind in that alley”, Nero shivered when V casually settled his long fingers on his shoulder, “would you mind accompanying me to check?”

Never before Nero had agreed to a petition so quickly.

* * *

V’s back had barely impacted against the alley’s wall when Nero’s mouth was already crashing against his, desperate and hungry.

Nero’s whole frame pressed him heatedly against the wall, not wasting even one second in beginning grinding against him, urging his legs opened with his own. V’s lips parted in a groan with the first rub of Nero’s crotch against his, allowing Nero to plunge his tongue inside in a way that made his mind shut off for a moment.

While returning the kiss with matching fierceness, V’s hands didn’t hesitate in slipping under Nero’s black t-shirt to feel the expanse of his abs against his fingers, travelling up to also roam through those pectorals he had already dreamed to mark with his teeth. The action made Nero grunt during the kiss, his lips attaching next at the side of V’s exposed neck to suck a mark there.

V moaned and tilted his head to the other side, liberating his hands from inside Nero’s t-shirt to place his right on the back of Nero’s neck to encourage him to suck again, to bite _harder_.

“Shit”, Nero snarled against the crook of his neck after a leaving a hickey on his patterned skin, stopping the motion of his hips for a moment, “damn, V, this is so fucked up.”

V chuckled breathlessly, forcing Nero’s face to be (almost) at his level.

“Only because you think too much, Nero”, V nipped at the officer’s lower lip, undulating forward again to replace Nero’s puzzled expression for an aroused one, “right now you want me, and right now I want you. Math are simple here, don’t you agree?”

Before Nero could make the mistake of keeping overthinking V dove forward to bite Nero’s neck in retaliation, applying enough force so that the officer let out a groan that sounded more aroused than pained. V separated, licking his lips teasingly to taste the officer’s sweat in his tongue, which seemed to be the right move to activate Nero again.

With a curse the officer’s hands slipped under his t-shirt this time to begin lifting it. The impressed ‘_Fuck_’ Nero muttered while admiring his inked torso let V know the officer hadn’t expected to see his whole chest tattooed.

V’s thoughts were diluted with the strike of pleasure that assaulted him when Nero’s mouth suddenly enclosed around a nipple, his tongue circling around it. He hummed appreciatively while leaning his head back against the bricked wall. His eyes fluttered close and he arched his body against Nero’s mouth invitingly so that the officer added pressure with his teeth. His member throbbed inside his leather pants when Nero’s mouth continued the assault, the officer’s hands releasing his t-shirt to reach around in order to grab and grope his ass with an intent impossible to misinterpret.

What was happening at that moment was clearly surpassing V’s expectations.

Seeing Nero in action had been quite a sight, and V had been completely unable to hide the excitation he felt when witnessing it, in part because he hadn’t bothered to put much effort into it. However, it didn’t enter his calculations that Nero would react like that to it, that Nero would actually accept his invitation.

He knew that the previous crazy car chase had something to do with their current situation, and that under other circumstances Nero would have behaved with more control if adrenaline wasn’t running through his veins, but V had something clear:

If someone was going to put an end to it, it wasn’t going to be him.

He had been craving for Nero practically since the moment they met, and now that the officer looked about to make that alley be the best place of the whole Red Grave City to remember, he wasn’t going to stop him. He was a thief after all, and _that _went hand in hand with not having as much conscience as normal people had.

“Feeling like confessing now?”, Nero suddenly breathed against his mouth after abandoning his chest, causing V to chuckle and open his eyes again to look at Nero.

Yes, certainly as beautiful as Nero’s blue eyes were, they looked _even _better clouded with desire.

“_Just_ with this?”, V teased with a purposely condescending voice, “my apologies Nero, but giving up my liberty will require much more..._convincing_.”

V grinned when Nero’s eyes half-close for the provocation, though his expression evolved soon in one of surprised anticipation when, without averting his determined look from him, Nero’s hands came back to his front to fumble with the belt of his pants.

The thief’s breath caught in his throat when the tip Nero’s fingers slipped inside the hem of his trousers _and _underwear. The officer managed to grasp the tip of his hardened member for a fleeting instant, which was enough to make V’s hand dig on Nero’s shoulder while bucking up, his lower lip grabbed between his lips.

“‘Much more’ you say?”, Nero teased against his ear in return, “because you look pretty close to do it already, _thief_.”

V turned his head towards Nero’s face, chuckling softly before capturing the officer’s mouth in a heated kiss that made Nero groan.

“I guess there is only one way to know who is right, _officer_.”

By then V had an idea about how weak Nero was to be addressed by his range in such a voice, so he made sure to use that power move then.

He was about to whisper a relieved ‘_Yes_’ after Nero’s fingers began to pull down at his pants, extremely eager to see Nero dropping to his knees for him, when....

“Nero, is everything okay?! The guys told me you had gone to check something and you weren’t back yet.”

...Nero released them as if they burned, after a feminine voice V didn’t recognize sounded really close to them.

While Nero cursed nervously and separated from him V clicked his tongue loudly, feeling incredibly annoyed for having been interrupted. He rolled down his t-shirt and buckled his belt again with reluctance in the exact moment in which an attractive brunette dressed in rather short clothes turned the corner.

Probably the fact that Nero looked at the woman as if he had committed the worst punishable crime ever was what prompted her to look between them alternatively before talking with suspicion.

“I interrupted something, didn't I?”

“Not at all.”

“Indeed you did.”

The woman looked about to laugh when his casual reply made Nero stare at him in disbelief, before V offered the officer an ironic look.

“We were in the process of looking for my wallet, remember? Since I dropped it here during the pursuit.”

Definitely the officer could take some improvisation lessons because the ‘_Y-Yeah, exactly_’ he let out was extremely unconvincing.

“And what are you doing here?”, Nero inquired as V purposely finished arranging his t-shirt behind Nero’s back, causing the woman to smile to herself knowingly.

“Well, we heard about the chase and your daddy sent me to offer support.”

“Lady, I told you not to call him _that_!”

“Okay: the Demon Chief sent me. Better?”

“Yes, thank you. And he didn’t need to. We had everything under control.”

“‘_We_’?”

“I-I mean, _I_ had everything under control. V—Mr. Vail just happened to be here to help.”

“Aham. By the way, no one told me that that thug bit you.”

“What the—he didn’t bite me?”

“No? Because I would swear that you didn’t have that giant mark in your neck this morning in the office.”

V had time to enjoy Nero suspiciously snapping the palm of his hand against the mark he had given him a moment ago when his mobile beeped. His eyes opened when realizing it was the alarm he had set to go to speak to Nevan, which meant that it had been at least 15 minutes since he should be in the gallery.

“I am sorry to interrupt the conversation but I should be going”, V intervened when Nero seemed about to try to uselessly explain the hickey V had delivered, “my boss is quite strict with schedules and my resting time has long passed.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that!”, Lady said while waving her hand carefreely, “we’ll call the gallery later to tell her you helped us catch that asshole. And by the way I’m Lady: nice to officially meet the famous Mr. Vail.”

V accepted the hand the woman was offering him and shook it while Nero observed the scene in mute astonishment, as if he wasn’t believing that his companion was so friendly with him.

“Nice to meet you too”, V then faced Nero, adopting his best casual tone, “it has been quite an experience to collaborate with the police, Nero. I cannot wait to do it with you again.”

V enjoyed quite a lot the blush that settled in the tip of Nero’s ears when he said those last ambiguous words before taking his leave, and although it was beyond frustrating that they had been interrupted when the interesting part was about to start, he had learned something quite useful:

That Nero loved the risk as much as him, that Nero got excited by it as much as him, and that he planned to exploit such a weakness as soon as the opportunity presented again.

* * *

“So, you two—”

“Don’t.”

“But I haven’t said anything yet!”

“I don’t care. _Don’t_.”

“Come on, you don’t have to give me any details.”

“For fuck sake, _Lady_…”

“You only have to say yes or no.”

“_NO._”

“So, in that alley, were you two about to fuc—”

“LADY.”

“Oh my god, so that’s a yes!”

Nero threw his best glare at Lady when this one started to laugh while driving, but truth to be told he couldn’t blame her for it. He deserved every single tease and laugh because his relationship with V was turning more and more complicated and, at that rate, it was going to spiral out of control.

In fact, it could very much have done it already.

Before in the coffee shop he had been glad that they were interrupted. He had been relieved of having avoided to cross that line his father mentioned the other day, from which it would be difficult to come back. But when the moment of truth came and V told him to jump, he had almost reached the fucking sky of how high and willingly he had done so.

And yeah, he could blame the tension of the chase, the thrilling of the catch, but the unavoidable truth was that, in case Lady hadn’t appeared when she did, he would have ended fucking V raw against the wall of that alley and would have enjoyed every single second of it.

“Hey, you okay?”, Lady inquired then, noticing his light distress, “look, if you are afraid that I tell your daddy rest easy, okay? I have your back.”

Nero snorted softly, crossing his arms while looking through the window.

“I know you won’t. Because otherwise I’ll tell him you call him Demon Chief behind his back.”

Lady gasped exaggeratedly.

“So now you blackmail me? Man, your new boyfriend surely is a bad influence.”

Nero chuckled when hearing Lady, exhaling a long, resigned sigh.

For the first time, he was seriously considering the option of dropping the Poetic Burglar’s case. After all, the only thing he was getting was a huge case of blue balls but nothing relevant to prove the thief’s guilt. He wasn’t making any relevant advances since a week ago, he hadn’t managed to get a single clue from V that day, and the fact that the more he met V the more attracted he felt towards him was beginning to scare him, so surely the most intelligent option was to stop before making a mistake impossible to amend.

Nero was about to turn towards Lady to ask her for advice (yeah, he was _that _desperate) when, by chance, they were forced to stop in a street light and Nero’s eyes were drawn to an announcement of an auction that would take place the Saturday of the next week.

He frowned, feeling that there was something about it that sounded familiar, and although it didn’t strike him immediately, eventually it did.

“_There will be a rather important auction in a month to which my boss was invited, and she has been kind enough to get an invitation for me as well._”

Nero’s eyes opened more, his heart beginning to beat faster as his instincts were activated when remembering certain part of his conversation with V. Concretely something the thief had replied.

“_Those who control their passions do so because they are weak enough to be controlled_.”

“Uhm, Nero?”, Lady asked with hesitation, noticing Nero’s agitated state as he quickly recovered his mobile from his pocket to search something, “Nero, what are you—”

Someone honked behind them when the light turned green and Lady wasn't moving yet. The woman showed the driver behind them a middle finger with a charming smile as Nero continued typing on his mobile, stopping after some seconds with an expression of stupor when his suspicions were confirmed.

“Holy shit”, Nero finally looked at Lady, his eyes opened at its maximum, “I think I have it.”

Lady looked at him without understanding.

“You have what?”

Nero showed the screen of his mobile to Lady.

“I think I know what the Poetic Burglar is going to steal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter got longer once again because the last scene in the alley wasn't planned but somehow it kind of happened hehehe.
> 
> Also, plot twist: Nero and V both murder the people who interrupt them when being about to fuck xDDD. No, it won't be necessary, I promise :P  
Next chapter the Poetic Burglar appears again! So I will try to update ASAP ;)


	10. Third time lucky (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! Last week I was out for work and it was impossible to find some calm time to write this chapter, so I updated my other fic which was quite more lighter and with way less plot xD
> 
> To compensate there is a little monster of a chapter ahead, buuut since the theft _finally_ happens here I couldn't split the chapter :P
> 
> Also, in case someone hasn't noticed, the chapter is now **E** for heavy strong language.  
...  
It's a joke: it's E because things escalate a little here between the boys so I hope you enjoy it when reading it ;)

** _June 29, Saturday - 1 day for the end of the month_ **

“_Check, check, one, two, one, two. V, dude, do you copy?_”

V finished shaking the hand of the man Nevan had just introduced to him, stepping aside subtly with the excuse of giving his boss some privacy to dazzle the fool so that he became a new sponsor for her gallery.

“I hear you loud and clear, Nico”, V muttered while still showing his generic, polite smile, as every time he was forced to attend an event of that nature, “everything is ready I presume?”

“_Yup, all in position. Now you only have to survive some boring-as-hell hours of standing rich pricks.”_

V exhaled a soft sigh and approached the long table that had been set in the room adjacent to the one where the auction would take place.

“Easier said than done”, V took a glass from the table before scanning his surroundings, “are you sure we cannot accelerate things a little and doing it right here right now?”

“_Sorry, man, but nope: that philosophy can work with your boyfriend but not at work._”

V rolled his eyes even if Nico couldn’t see it, though for the way the woman chuckled it was evident she knew what his reaction had been.

He equally admired and regretted Nico’s incredible ability of reading him. The day in which he helped Nero to catch that thug, a week ago already, he hadn’t planned to mention the incident to Nico. However, when he met the woman in her studio later that day, a simple look at him had been all she needed to show that goofy, knowing smile that indicated she knew something had happened, though maybe the hickey V had uselessly tried to cover with make-up had given her a gigantic clue.

Speaking of which, the mark had not faded yet, and V couldn’t help to fantasize about what could had happened if that detective hadn’t interrupted them. Because if Nero had been able to leave his imprint of him with mere five minutes of rushed making out in an alley, V truly wanted to discover what the officer was able to do during a full night in a proper bed.

“_Did you get any news from the guy?_”

Even if the topic kept being Nero, V was glad that his train of thoughts was interrupted and turned back to PG rating. He had to stay focused after all. Their current job may promise to be a relatively smooth go in-get out operation, but he couldn’t afford himself to lower his guard. Not when they were so close to beat the record of thefts carried out in a row in Red Grave City.

“No. I guess he was busy trying to deduce what the Poetic Burglar was going to do.”

“_What a pity then. You spent all that time dressing all _[_fancy_](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1j1g8NIfpK1RjSZFOq6y6nFXa7/single-buckle-PU-suit-jacket-fashion-men-s-slim-snakeskin-tattoo-leather-jacket-personality-punk-street.jpg)_ for him._”

V began to approach the glass to his mouth, while thinking off a way to discreetly retort that the reason for such a suit was that he would only need to remove his jacket when having to get into action.

His lips had just made contact with the champagne when his eyes were drawn to the people still gathering in the entrance, where someone caught his undivided attention.

V managed not to cough out the liquid he had swallowed, moment in which Nico talked again with confusion, probably because she was still waiting for a quick comeback from him that wasn’t arriving.

“_V? You’re still there?_”

“He is here.”

“_What the hell does that mean? Who is there?_”

V couldn’t answer that last part. His attention was focused on Nero who, dressed up more [formally](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51LdBwe8IfL._UX679_.jpg) for the event, was approaching him with a cadency that was quite similar to the one his uncle usually displayed.

“Hey, V. What’s up?”, Nero frowned, pretending to be confused even if the smirk forming in his face was one of pure satisfaction, “you okay? You look a little shocked.”

V realized then that his mouth had ended half-opened, so he proceeded to close it.

Because of the characteristics of their current job, while he and Nico worked on the possible scenarios they would face, they had considered the possibility of running into Nero _after _carrying out the theft. However, meeting the officer _before _it was something they hadn’t foreseen, since with all the information they had given to the officer it must have been impossible to him to reach the correct conclusion.

Unless V had said something he shouldn’t. And given that lately he felt too comfortable around the officer, such an assumption wasn’t that crazy.

“_Wait, is that your officer?!_”, Nico shouted not very calmly in his ear, forcing V to suppress a grimace, “_what the fuck is he doing there?!_”

“Indeed I am”, V finally answered Nero without bothering to hide his surprise, since not even he was such a good actor, “though I am more surprised to see you in a suit. I knew it would look good on you.”

Predictably, Nero did not fall for the compliment and continued talking while looking at him directly in the eye.

“Yeah, we _all _have dressed for the occasion.”

Nero had barely said those words when V’s eyes were averted towards the entrance again. He managed to keep his expression imperturbable, but his heart skipped a beat when seeing [Dante](https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1Neb3awKTBuNkSne1q6yJoXXaD/Hombre-de-negocios-informal-Blazers-azul-marino-Burdeos-rojo-traje-chaqueta-para-los-hombres-elegantes-trajes.jpg) showing his badge to the security guard in the reception. [Lady](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1464/6450/products/1_large_2792bf6a-ba43-4bab-98c2-981faf512e4f_grande.png?v=1532573683) was also there, and while the woman also identified herself V’s eyes crossed paths with Dante’s. The detective winked at him with a smile, but his eyes were inquisitive while proceeding to give some orders to the guards around.

“_Holy shit, V, they are beginning to cover all the exits. Absolutely all. Even the one we were planning to use._”

After hearing Nico, V was tempted to immediately begin to search for an alternative plan, but he decided it was wiser to wait. He may be good at what he did, that was the reason why he hadn’t been caught yet, but thinking as the Poetic Burglar while being forced to act as Mr. Vail was devoted to fail. He could say something out of place, and that was something he must avoid at that moment, so he had to keep calm and do things one step at a time.

“I was not aware that all of you were so interested in the event”, V finally commented, looking back at Nero with a calm smile, “if you wanted to attend it so badly, I’m sure that Miss Nevan would have been able to arrange it so that you did not need to use your position.”

The satisfaction that had been present in Nero’s features a moment ago gave room to a more serious expression that still looked quite attractive on him, V couldn’t help to think despite the situation couldn’t be more critic for Nico and him.

“It’s over, V. We know what you are planning to steal, and we have taken measures to avoid it. There are officers in all the entrances and exits, and the security is going to be even tighter during the auction. If I were you, I would give up in whatever you have planned.”

V sustained Nero’s gaze, taking note of the information provided before crossing the arm who was not sustaining the glass across his chest.

“Well, a moment ago my main plan consisted of skipping this event as soon as possible, since spending my evening seeing how people invest their unfairly gained money in art that they will never fully appreciate is consuming to say the least. But, if as you say, the Poetic Burglar is planning to act tonight…”, V offered Nero a teasing smile, “...I guess I will stay longer, since maybe the event turns to be more interesting than I thought.”

“_Does that mean we don’t cancel the operation?_”, Nico inquired while Nero half-closed his eyes when hearing his answer, “_I have now visual, V: blink once if that’s what you’re saying and two if we withdraw._”

V did it once, causing Nico to curse at the other side before muttering a hurried: ‘_Okay, we’ll have to improvise, shit. Give me a minute’_.

“I’m not gonna stop watching you, V”, Nero warned as the thief heard Nico in the background, talking to herself while reviewing previous jobs, “and I’m not letting you on your own. Wherever you go tonight, I go too.”

Once again, Nero’s comment was too good not to answer.

“Does that offer stand after the event is over, officer?”

V’s seductive proposal caused the desired effect, since Nero gulped before answering.

“If the night ends without anything happening, yes. It does.”

V was unable to control the way his eyes opened in disbelief when Nero sounded sincere about it. He found himself seriously considering the idea, thinking about the possibility of renouncing to the job to finally have Nero for himself, with no more interruptions.

He wasn’t going to lie: it was tempting. _Really _tempting.

But he couldn’t do it. His pride and Nico’s were at stake after that criminal who tried to stain their names with that poorly executed robbery. In fact, some news kept blaming them for it, so they had agreed they would clean their name that night and _that _was exactly what they were going to do.

Therefore, as frustrating as it certainly was, his crave for Nero had to be postponed a little while longer.

“Then I guess I will hope the Poetic Burglar does _not _act tonight”, after taking his first and last sip, V deposited his glass on the table and surprised Nero by enclosing his arm around the officer’s one, “come on, the event is about to start.”

“_V, I have it! Listen carefully…_”

The thief did so, and after confirming Nico in the same way that he agreed to all the plan modifications, he guided Nero inside the room, swearing to himself that it would be the last time he relaxed by thinking a job was going to be easy because, apparently, that was not their style at all.

* * *

“Hey, kid.”

Nero heard Dante approach him but didn’t avert his eyes from V, who was sitting in one of the chairs of the [auction room](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/04/43/26/10/1440x810_cmsv2_8992e1d3-910d-519a-92f2-6991ccac8907-4432610.jpg) next to Nevan. He felt Dante’s hand on his shoulder before the detective began talking in a lower tone so that only Nero heard him.

“Everyone is into position. Also, since there isn’t any substantial evidence against Mr. Vail, we technically couldn’t examine his belongings without permission _but _Lady happened to ‘accidentally’ mistake her coat with his and has checked it. He’s clean.”

“And all the doors have been covered?”

“Yep.”

“And the rooms?”

“Damn, kid, you know how similar you sound like Verg right now?”

Dante laughed when Nero glared at him and raised his left hand briefly in a conciliatory way.

“Yeah, we have checked all the rooms, inspected the bathrooms, the waste bins...We have found _nothing_. And besides…”, Dante pointed at V with his chin and leaned against the back wall with his arms crossed, mimicking Nero’s posture, “...you have him covered. I mean, unless he can clone himself there’s no way he can leave without us noticing it. He has to be crazy to do something tonight.”

Nero exhaled a long sigh and continued observing V, who at the moment was paying attention to something Nevan was saying.

For a moment, Nero had believed V was going to accept his offer. He had been even tempted to suggest V to leave the place at that precise moment, since that way he could ensure that no theft would be made. Also, he couldn’t deny it: the perspective of spending some hours alone with V, this time without interruptions, didn’t sound half bad. It actually sounded quite good. Fuck, _too _good. And Nero would be lying if he didn’t admit he had been left wanting for more during their last fleeting encounter.

However, by thinking about his previous conversation with V, in how secure the thief had looked and sounded despite his initial surprise of seeing him and the others there, deep inside he doubted V was gonna give up. The fact that the situation had turned more complicated and dangerous may have achieved the opposite effect, spurring V on even more to do the theft, and Nero had several contradictory feelings about it.

On the one hand, Nero wanted that V didn’t abandon. He was looking forward to V trying to outpower him once again, that the thief tried to ridicule him a second time in order to show him that, this time, Nero was going to be the winner of their confrontation.

But on the other hand, Nero was finally beginning to be extremely aware about what would happen if he won. Up till then he hadn’t thought about the fact that in case he did his job right, if he caught V, the thief would end in jail. And such a perspective made his stomach drop.

Because he knew V was a criminal. He knew the man had a debt to pay to society. He knew that feeling guilty in case of capturing V would be completely out of place because he was doing the right thing, on the contrary than V who hadn’t been doing it for a while. But still, Nero was entering the dangerous terrain of thinking that there were people way worse and infinitely more dangerous than V that deserved to be behind bars and who weren’t, and that consequently it wasn’t that bad that V escaped such fate.

And what if V had stolen really expensive books? He had read the Poetic Burglar’s reports, and he knew the assholes V had stolen from. Fine, V wasn’t a Saint. And definitely he wasn’t a modern Robin Hood who stole for the poor, because by basing on V’s belongings it was evident that the thief got benefits for himself from his jobs, but Nero couldn’t bring himself to mind. The Poetic Burglar’s victims were mainly assholes who had so much money that would surely forget about half of the things they had, and Nero couldn’t honestly sympathize with them.

And damn, as wrong as it sounded, V paying back for robbing those people didn’t sit good within him, even if the ‘correct thing’ was to stop him from doing that.

Nero was beginning to think he wanted to catch V without actually catching him, and such a thing was impossible. So, when the moment of truth came, which could be that same night, he would need to choose between doing his job as a cop and the strange, fucking crazy relationship he had come to have with V.

And honestly, he didn’t know which would win at the end.

At that moment the lights of the room faded a little and the host of the auction walked towards the lectern to announce the start of the event. Everyone was applauding when Nevan turned her head, looked at Dante, and with a seductive smile she signaled the empty seat next to her, as if inviting the man to sit down next to her. Nero was surprised when Dante smiled back but shook his head negatively, muttering a soundless ‘_Work_’ that made the woman show a mocking pouting expression before returning her attention to the stage.

Nero stared at his uncle in disbelief, causing this one to shrug.

“What? I’m on duty.”

Nero deadpanned at Dante and was about to retort that such a thing hadn’t stopped him in the past when he noticed V looking at him with an incredible serious expression. He automatically met his gaze, and when the thief repeated the gesture Nevan had done, a laugh was about to escape him. He managed to control it in time, but V seemed to have noticed it because this one smiled before recovering his previous position.

“Damn, kid. You’re in deep, huh?”

He froze when hearing Dante next to him sounding quite serious. He looked at his uncle, who was displaying a resigned, knowing smile. Nero was about to deny the statement when the first piece of art was taken to the stage and the host began to talk about it, forcing them to devote their attention to it.

The following hour passed incredibly slowly by following the same mechanic: first, the host announced the piece of art to be exposed with a spotlight directed to him; then, while the explanation was being carried out, the piece of art was brought to the stage and illuminated to give more effect; finally, after indicating the initial price of the good, people made their offers until one of them obtained the prize.

During the whole time Nero didn’t avert his eyes from V, and during the whole time the thief looked perfectly at ease, as if he wasn’t plotting anything criminal at all.

When the second hour was about to pass, Nero felt Dante getting impatient next to him by changing his weight from one leg to the other. He predicted that his uncle was going to insist once again about him being sure of the Poetic Burglar acting that night when _the object_ was finally presented.

“And now, ladies a gentleman, we present one of the only eight surviving copies pf an incredible manuscript: ‘The First Book of Urizen’, written by William Blake and originally printed in 1794.”

Nero stopped leaning against the wall at the same time that Dante did, his eyes focused on V as his uncle spoke through his intercom to indicate everyone to be on alert.

“‘The First Book of Urizen’ is considered one of the major pieces in Blake’s series of prophetic works. In fact, several scholars agree that it can been considered his masterpiece, being one of his most important writings.”

The host kept giving more details about it for a couple of minutes before the [book](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e1/The_Book_of_Urizen%2C_copy_G_object_1_The_Book_of_Urizen.jpg/220px-The_Book_of_Urizen%2C_copy_G_object_1_The_Book_of_Urizen.jpg) (or more accurately, one of the pages of the manuscript) was finally illuminated. The host then announced that the initial price was $2.5 million and immediately several hands were raised in the air.

“_Hey, guys, how is everything over there?_”, Nero heard Lady ask Dante, “_everything is suuuper boring around here._”

“Okay, love, warn us in case that changes”, Dante answered, signaling towards V with his chin, “it doesn’t seem as if he is plotting anything.”

Nero gritted his teeth, because he had to agree that V had only moved twice since the start of the event: once to cross his legs, and a second time to remove his jacket.

“He wants this”, Nero muttered, half-closing his eyes, “all the poems the Poetic Burglar leaves behind are from the same author, and he used a fucking sentence of him the last time. There’s _no way_ that he lets pass this opportunity.”

“I know, kid”, Dante answered as the offers kept happening, “your deduction was really solid. If it wasn’t, Verg wouldn’t have authorized this operation. _But _there’s also the possibility of nothing happening today.”

“But V said a new theft would happen before the end of the month. This is his only chance.”

“And wouldn’t it have more sense that he waits until everything is calmed before acting? He has always kept a low profile until now.”

“Yeah, but until now he hadn’t been wrongly accused of doing a sloppy crime, and he is proud as hell. For sure he wants to clean his name on a big scale and this is the perfect moment for it.”

After Nero finished talking, the battle for the book had been reduced to two adversaries: an old lady wearing really ostentatious jewelry whose face looked as if she ‘was smelling shit non-stop’ (a definition Nero had taken from his always subtle uncle), and a young, pregnant woman with several tattoos whose curly hair was propped up in a bun.

Nero was innerly rooting for the younger woman, but eventually it was the old lady the one who emerged victorious, although because of the other woman’s insistence the initial value of the book was raised to almost $20million.

During the whole process there wasn’t any change of behavior coming from V, neither during the following half-an-hour until the host announced there would be a small recess.

Several people stood up at that moment from the seats, V included after Nevan whispered something to him that caused him to nod before abandoning the line of seats. Nero was trying to push away the doubts that wanted to assault him about Dante being right when V walked towards them.

“Miss Nevan has asked me to bring her a drink”, V looked at them alternatively with irony, “I would offer you to join us but I guess drinking is not allowed in working hours.”

Dante barked a laugh while Nero continued looking at V with a frown, uselessly trying to read him.

“Yeah, sadly it isn't”, Dante palmed Nero’s shoulder once, signaling the door with his head, “you can go. I’ll keep watch.”

Nero nodded once and left the room after V. Truthful to his word, V approached the adjacent room, grabbed a glass, and began to walk back to the room, tilting his head a little to the side while looking at Nero with a teasing smile when this one followed him in silence and without barely blinking.

“Keep looking at me like that and you will make me blush, officer.”

Nero half-closed his eyes at the playful jibe.

“You are having fun, aren’t you?”

V chuckled and stopped just before entering the room again.

“Well, certainly it is entertaining to receive such an unwavering attention from you. Although I must admit…”, this time, when V leaned to whisper the next part in his ear Nero didn’t tense as much as usual, as if he was already used to something like that, “...I would enjoy the evening more if you decided to skip the second part of the event with me.”

V softly grasped his earlobe with his teeth and Nero couldn’t help to shiver lightly. Without giving him time to answer anything else V entered the room, greeting Dante before returning to his seat as Nero recovered his position next to his uncle.

“So?”, Dante inquired, looking at Nero with a look that showed he had heard the last interaction, “did he do something suspicious besides flirting with you?”

Nero’s answer was to elbow his uncle, making this one huff a laugh.

When everyone was inside the room and this one was locked again, the host returned to the center of the stage to announce the second part of the endless event. When the second piece was being presented, Nevan had to leave to attend a call, purposely choosing the door next to Dante to accidentally rub against him provocatively. Once again, Dante gulped slightly, surely not feeling indifferent for the action, but Nero innerly congratulated his uncle for controlling his usual impulses of running after any available skirt. It seemed that he was finally taking seriously the task of coming back to Trish after all.

When several more minutes passed, Nero had lost the count of how many ‘awesome, incredible, astonishing’ pieces of art had been exposed. He was about to lose the hope of something actually happening that night when, as if reading his thoughts, the lights of the room went out, causing the audience to let out gasps that for now were merely of surprise.

Nero tensed, and also Dante, but when the host made a joke about the illumination technicians being a little too eager to remove the spotlight from him, he relaxed again, especially when several laughs followed the comment.

He realized too late that he had relaxed too soon when a high-pitched shout pierced through the reigning silence.

“_FIRE!_”

Nero’s heart stopped when he heard that female cry coming from some point further inside the room, the comfortable mood that had appeared after the host’s joke turning into terror, panic rising when a thin smoke suddenly began to invade the room out of nowhere, as if confirming the woman’s warning.

“Everyone, please, calm down!”, one of the auction attendants was saying, trying to uselessly put some order to the people who was tripping over to abandon the seats in order to exit the place.

Nero cursed when, because of their position, he and Dante were practically squashed by the people who was trying to open the locked doors without listening to the attendants’ indications.

Needless to say, his focus on V was completely destroyed.

* * *

The moment the completely inoffensive smoke Nico had provoked with a modified grenade began to invade the room, V didn’t waste a single second. He crouched on the floor and rapidly walked to the other side of the room to approach the woman who had shouted and who was waiting for him there.

“Dude, you owe me big for this. This thing weighed a fucking ton.”

Nico reached under her dress towards her fake pregnant belly to extract a concealed bag from inside it. Meanwhile, V pushed up his hair in a tight ponytail with the rubber band that had been on his wrist all that time. At least, the call Nevan had received and that he had orchestrated had worked wonders. He knew that Nevan would be unable to refuse attending a call coming from the most important art dealer overseas, and V had made sure to inform the man that Nevan could only be contacted at that hour, in order to make sure his boss wouldn’t be an accidental witness in the event.

After all, if everything had been according to the plan V would have only needed to absent himself to go to the toilet, pick up the backpack that Nico had left there beforehand a couple of days ago when she replaced one of the technicians, and carry out the theft without mayor trouble, being back in time before Nevan returned from the call.

However, after seeing that the police planned to inspect every nook and cranny, Nico had needed to play a role to rapidly recover the bag before it was found. Definitely he was lucky to have her by his side. Her decision of re-adapting the pregnant-woman plan had been an extremely good move.

“I promise I will compensate you”, V grabbed the backpack and rapidly walked towards the backdoor, leaving Nico behind readjusting her fake belly under her [dress](https://mothersenvogue.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/w/r/wrap-sleeveless-dress-d2-0405_myrtle-green.jpg) again.

Making sure that everyone was too busy panicking and trying to run to save their non-threatened lives, V extracted the hood, gloves and mask from the backpack and put them on before abandoning the room.

Because of the building protocol of emergency that they had studied to detail, the door V was using had to be avoided at all cost in case of fire, since it only leaded further inside the building. Nevertheless, V made sure that the small corridor was empty before running noiselessly towards his destination: a small storeroom with clean supplies that was going to be his plan ‘V’ (as Nico liked to call it) in case everything failed.

“_The cameras will be off for five minutes but they’ll be probably able to restore the lights sooner_”, Nico whispered through his earpiece while V extracted a small automatic screwdriver to remove the screws of a quite small air vent, “_so move your flat ass the fastest you could._”

“I’m on it”, V calmly and efficiently finished opening the vent and after removing his backpack he pushed it inside before also crawling inside it, “can you see what Nero is doing?”

“_For now he has enough dealing with the people trying to smash him against the door_.”

A small smile escaped V when imagining the scene.

“Good. Keep an eye on him”, he said while continuing his travel for the little maze of vents, whose turns he had memorized, “perhaps I will need you to distract him if worse comes to worst.”

“_Distract him? And what the hell should I do?_”

“Nico, you are supposedly pregnant right now, remember? I’m sure you can figure something out”, at that moment V stopped, looking down when reaching an air vent situated under his body, “found it.”

Making use again of the screwdriver, V opened the vent. Nico had programmed the hacking of the security systems so that all of them were down, so theoretically there should not be any active alarms. However, V was still in alert when dropping to the floor, ready to run in case it was necessary since it was not the first time that a last minute installation that they had not heard about forced him to abandon the place in a rush.

This time it wasn’t necessary, and V could effortlessly walk through different gridded [panels](http://www.gibbesmuseum.org/news/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Paintings-Storage-Feature-1200x638.jpg) and mobile shelving units where the auctioned pieces were stored until finding the one he had come to steal.

“_Lights on, V. And your officer is clearly looking for you but isn’t moving yet._”

Rapidly, V extracted the small picklock’s case from the backpack and proceeded to break open the showcase where ‘The First Book of Urizen’ was. He worked all the fast he could but was extremely careful not to damage the pages in any way. When they were free from their confinement, V extracted the mandatory poem from inside his pocket and left it inside. He then rolled all the pages up and covered them in the small [leather case](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51jJs53EooL.jpg) that they had stored in the backpack.

He put the backpack on again and was about to return to the vent when Nico gasped at the other side.

“_V. V. I-It’s Nero. I think he’s going where you are now._”

“What?”, V said, louder than intended while stopping in his tracks.

“_Sorry, man, I-I didn’t have time to stop him! Suddenly he looked at his mobile and his face changed while speeding out of the room!_”

V looked again the showcase where the book had been stored a moment ago and exhaled a frustrated sigh.

“Perhaps they put a silent alarm on it”, he rapidly walked towards the air vent, “it must have been activated when I opened it.”

“_Shit, your boyfriend is good._”

“Yes, which is terribly bad for us right now. Where’s the closest exit?”

“_The backdoor of that floor, but Dante is ordering right now to cover all the exits. I think they already know the fire is a bluff._”

“Fuck.”

V didn’t usually swear, and the fact he did it at that moment meant that he felt more cornered than he had been in a while. And also, even if it couldn’t be more inopportune, he also felt quite turned on for Nero being able to push him against the ropes like that.

“Nico, where are you now?”

“_Still inside but I’m about to follow the sobbing riches outside.”_

“Alright, move the van next to the old theatre as soon as you can.”

“_The old theatre? But this is quite far away from—”, _Nico interrupted herself and V could picture her shocked face,_ “wait wait wait: don’t tell me you’re gonna use—_

“Yes.”

“_But we haven’t tested it enough! What if it fails and—_”

Even if Nico would surely kill him afterwards for it, V went radio silence and rapidly entered the vent again, deciding to trust Nico’s ability to include that last device in his hooded jacket because, at that moment, it was his only chance to leave that place unhandcuffed.

* * *

After letting Dante take care of the people, Nero didn’t waste even one second in running towards the storeroom where V surely was.

He knew he was breaking a bunch of rules by running after V without waiting for backup, something all the officers had to do when dealing with an international-wanted criminal even if this one hadn’t proved to be particularly violent.

But he didn’t care. The Poetic Burglar case was something personal after all (way too personal in fact), so if someone was eventually fated to catch V it had to be him and no one else. Nero wouldn’t allow to be anyone else at the very least. The Poetic Burglar was his, and he didn’t fucking matter how possessive such a claim sounded.

When approaching the storeroom, Nero reached for his weapon and kicked the door opened, announcing his name and range at the same time. The room was silent, and a look towards the empty showcase and to the open vent was enough to make him deduce V wasn’t anywhere to be found in that room.

“Shit”, Nero hissed, lowering his gun with his left hand while placing his right against his earpiece, “Dante, Lady, the manuscript and V are gone. Do you know where these air vents lead?”

Lady’s answer was almost immediate, because as disaster as the woman could be sometimes, when being on duty she became terribly serious and efficient...

“_Check the roof. I doubt your boo is dumb enough to try other exits.”_

...though of course she had to address V _like that _even in that situation. At least he was thankful that the only other person listening in that channel was Dante.

“Roger.”

Nero cut communication at that moment to run towards the stairs leading to the [rooftop](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/43/0a/fe/430afe45633400d6a731ead8a12c85ec.jpg). He had barely crossed the door when his instincts were activated, making him turn around rapidly in a reflex action.

He realized that doing that had been a mistake, because while making the turning movement V took advantage of his worse balance to tackle him against the ground, something that he couldn’t have achieved in case Nero had been in alert and with his feet firmly planted on the floor.

The weapon fell loudly several meters away from them and Nero’s back had barely impacted against the ground when V was already positioning himself over his lap, pinning him against the floor with his hips while placing a rather sharp knife under his chin. A knife rather similar to the one the thief lent him in order to set himself free the last time, Nero had somehow time to notice.

“Long time no see, officer”, V said a little breathlessly over him, halfof his face concealed with that ridiculous cat mask but his challenging smile being quite recognizable, “congratulations for having deduced what my plan was. I’m deeply impressed by your abilities.”

Nero gritted his teeth when hearing the overly surprised comment, even if he knew that V was surely using that tone to push his buttons.

Ignoring the knife pressed against his neck Nero began to straighten his position. As he was expecting, V’s eyes opened more behind the mask while automatically removing the knife to avoid hurting him badly, which allowed Nero to invert their positions to be the one pressing V against the floor with all his weight.

The violent action caused V to bite his lower lip and let out a soft groan of pleasure. Nero wasn’t expecting such reaction coming from V, neither the way his blood traveled south when hearing that sound that transported him back to that alley where each fiber of his body had wanted to fuck V senseless.

That brief moment of hesitation was a huge mistake to make, and just when Nero was seeing a mischievous smirk forming in V’s face, he heard a familiar, metallic clicking sound.

Nero looked towards the noise and stared with a dumbfounded expression at his own wrist, which was now handcuffed to the bottom of the vertical bar of the rooftop railing.

“Shit!", Nero cursed, realizing that V had managed to steal his own handcuffs during their brief fight, "son of a—”

Once again, V used balance to his advantage to roll their positions to be riding Nero’s lap once again. With one hand completely sealed, Nero tried to reach up to remove V’s mask, but the thief avoided the gesture effortlessly. Suddenly, a second pair of handcuffs, this time belonging to V, was enclosing around Nero’s remaining wrist before V rapidly tightened the other extreme on the other bar of the railing, with a precision and easiness that made Nero’s pride end utterly wounded.

“_FUCK_”, Nero shouted this time, frustration invading him when realizing his movements were completely constrained. And yeah, he could still move his legs and buck up but honestly, that could be the worst idea _ever _considering V’s position (or maybe the best, part of his stupid brain couldn’t help to think).

“I’m sorry, Nero, but I’ve been doing this for quite a while, so you still have a long way to go before beating me in a fight”, V deposited a quick kiss on Nero’s cheek before whispering the next sentence in his ear with an impressed tone that, this time, was sincere, “however, you _almost _had me there. You really made me sweat for a moment, officer.”

Nero was about to snarl that he gave a shit about V admiring him (even if it wasn’t true), but the retort died in his throat when V’s tongue began to trace the shell of his ear as the thief’s gloved hands travelled down his body, stopping at the belt he was wearing.

His stomach clenched painfully at that moment when his imagination ran wild about what V was planning to do. His suspicions about what could be about to happen were confirmed when V’s green eyes fixed on him again while licking his lower, plump lip hungrily, the action making Nero’s dick press against the trousers that V was now unzipping with sensual slowness.

“V…”, Nero breathed, his heart pounding in his chest, “...V, listen to me. The police are surrounding the damn whole place. It’s over. Wherever you go they will catch you and the other cops won’t hesitate in shooting if they see you. Your best chance now is to come with me and—”

Nero’s sentence ended with a grunt when V’s right gloved hand pulled his member outside his pants to begin to stroke it, the feeling of the leather against his sensitive flesh being something new and foreign but quite good.

“You are worried about me”, V sentenced more than asked, before chuckling with a softness that contrasted with the way his hand was expertly moving up and down around his cock, making Nero’s eyes shut closed with each wave of pleasure, “first you defend me with the press. Now, you express your concern for the police shooting me. You are indeed too kind for your own good, Nero. And _that _deserves another thank you.”

Nero shivered powerfully when V finished that last sentence with a velvety, promising tone.

His closed eyes ended half-lidded when feeling V retreating, and opened completely when V’s hand released his member to begin traversing down his body.

“Wait”, Nero began with urgency, fighting against his restraints when V approached his face to his leaking member with intent, “V, are you fucking crazy? What if someone—oh, _fuck_.”

Again, Nero’s attempt of protest evolved in a deep, rumbling groan when V’s mouth took him in completely like a pro, from tip to base until his long nose was pressing against the thin layer of hair in Nero’s partly exposed crotch.

Fuck, he didn’t want to boast, but truth was that Nero hadn’t had that many partners that could swallow him in one go _like that, _so the wet, tight sensation provoked by V deepthroating him was in another damn league. Damn, Nero knew that for a while using his hand on himself was going to be fucking insufficient.

“If someone comes, I guess they will have quite a show to witness”, V teased after bobbing his head up and down a couple of times, mouthing at the tip of Nero’s member and pressing his tongue against the slit to make Nero grit his jaw not to whine, “imagine the tabloids, Nero: ‘_The Poetic Burglar ends caught for giving head to a Police Officer_’. I’m sure people would not stop talking about it for a while.”

V’s words rose panic within Nero, but at that moment the thief’s plump lips enclosed around his flesh again and Nero’s mind was blown up.

“V..._ngh_...fuck, you are fucking crazy—_shit_!”, Nero grabbed the railing bars tightly when V’s fingers began to massage his sack at the same time that V added a sucking motion to the underside of his dick, making Nero’s groans be more keening for how intense it felt having such a sensitive zone caressed.

During the complete minute that the blowjob lasted, Nero forgot about where they were, about the fact that he supposedly had to catch V, about the possibility of Dante or Lady suddenly appearing in the rooftop to cockblock them again…

Damn, he even forgot his own fucking name.

His capacity of doing something that wasn’t bucking his hips against V’s throat or calling for his name in arousal was completely canceled. The only thing Nero could focus on at some point was the desperation of achieving release, imagining it was V the one he was fucking and not only his mouth while following V’s rhythm until finishing explosively with a toe-curling orgasm.

Among the dizziness invading his mind after coming like he hadn’t done it in weeks, Nero thought that it was a pity that V was wearing that mask because he would have liked to see how the thief looked while giving him oral. Also, next time this happened, he fucking wanted to entangle his fingers on V’s soft dark hair, the realization of him wishing for such a thing happening _again _not fully sinking into him yet.

Nero was still trying to recover his breath when the thief swallowed his release, zipped his trousers again and came back to be at his face level. V kissed him deeply and he reciprocated without thinking, tasting himself in the thief’s mouth. V deposited a quick kiss in his forehead and soon after that Nero heard that clicking sound again.

He realized too late that V had liberated his left wrist, and by when he reached for the key the thief had kindly placed on the ground next to his head V was already out of him and had recovered his bag.

“Well, at least we did not get interrupted this time”, V sinsang with a smirk, “it seems that third time lucky after all.”

Nero didn’t even notice that, theoretically, that was only his _second _time getting intimately involved with the Poetic Burglar, but he was busier observing with certain apprehension at V walking backwards towards the edge of the roof,

“V. Careful, you are too close—!”

The thief’s usual mocking nod was all Nero got before V turned around and jumped.

Nero’s heart stopped when that happened. He rushed towards the edge and leaned his hands on the railing in time to see V landing safe and sound in a lower roof, thanks to some kind of adapted wingsuit that V had on his jacket and that had apparently allowed him to glide in the air.

“_Kid? Nero? Do you copy?_”

Nero looked around startled when hearing his uncle’s voice. He pinpointed the sound coming from the ground, concretely from his walkie which, together with his weapon, had also fallen during his ‘struggle’ with V.

“Dante.”

“_Damn, finally_”, he felt a little guilty when Dante also sounded relieved, as if his uncle had been concerned about him, “_how is everything up there? Did you get him?_”

Nero took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and shook his head.

“No. He escaped.”

There was silence at the other side.

“_But you’re okay?_”

Nero chuckled, feeling another wave of guilt produced by his uncle’s overprotective reaction.

“Yeah, I am. At least until my father kills me on Monday.”

“_Hey now, you were right about the whole thing!_”, Dante reassured, “_It’s the first time someone is so close to catch that guy, so don’t sell yourself short with the Demon Chief, ‘kay?_”

After talking a little longer Nero told Dante he would join the others downstairs and then the man hung up.

Nero didn’t leave immediately. He returned the walkie to the back pocket of his trousers, leaned his arms over the railing, and after exhaling a long sigh he leaned his forehead on his hands while exhaling a self-mocking laugh.

His heart still racing due to what had happened in the roof, but also because the man he had sworn to catch had just escaped in front of his nose, and as annoyed as he was for V having got the upper hand once again, relief was the kicking-ass winner feeling invading him.

* * *

When V reached the street again Nico was already there with her van, waiting for him. While removing The Poetic Burglar’s outfit to remain in his normal suit once again he was obliged to listen to Nico angrily accusing him of being too reckless for using ‘the magic jacket’ before it was fully tested.

V accepted the reproach without protesting, since it was evident Nico had been rather worried about his wellbeing. At least, praise was something that always did wonders with the woman, so V only needed to sincerely admire her capacity of improvisation that night so that the woman drove him back to the auction building with a wide, proud smile in her face.

The woman parked a street away so that V walked the last part on his own. He waited to see an opening among the police controlling the place before joining the other auction guests who had been evacuated. Nevan was there, so V joined her as soon as possible and filled her in. That way, in case the police decided to interrogate her, she could confirm he had been there with her at least part of the night. It was true that he didn’t have a cover for the precise moment of the theft, but he doubted such a thing was a problem. After all, there were people who were still exiting the building as he spoke with Nevan because, as it usually happened in situation of crisis, some of them had decided that lock themselves in a room was the best way to protect them from the hypothetical fire, which meant that all of them could be as guilty as him.

V didn’t see Nero again for the rest of the night, neither Dante or Lady. The same as the other people, a police officer took his data, warned him about not leaving the city since he would be asked some questions related the incident and then he was allowed to go home.

Once V abandoned the taxi he had shared with Nevan and the door of his small but fancy apartment closed behind him, V texted Nico to tell her he was alright, and after receiving confirmation from the woman that the manuscript was safely stored and in perfect shape, V went to his room.

Normally, after a particularly stressing job V used to take a long bath before finally going to sleep, but at the moment he had an even bigger need that he urged to satisfy.

V reached his bedroom, retrieved certain supplies from his wardrobe that he hadn’t needed to use in a while, and after discarding his clothes he lay on his bed facing up. V popped the bottle of lube opened, coated his right fingers with it, and while beginning to pump his member with his left hand he reached down with his right in order to finger himself, exhaling a long sigh while closing his eyes in order to replay what had happened in the roof.

He let his mind drift to Nero, to how the officer had looked hovering over him just before submitting to him, to how Nero’s face passed from shocked, when he finally realized what he planned to do, to aroused with the first stroke V delivered. He knew it had been risky to suck Nero off. After all Nero could easily obtain a sample of his saliva to try to identify him, though he doubted Nero did such a thing. After all, he would need to explain how he had obtained it and V doubted the officer was willing to share the story.

At that moment V remembered how Nero’s had felt in his mouth, and his fingers stopped being enough to make him come. He needed more. He had needed more then, back in the roof, but he had been forced to content himself just with what happened. 

He reached on the mattress to retrieve the dildo in order to coat it with lube as well. V removed his fingers then, replacing them with the object when he could accommodate three digits up inside him.

The toy felt better. It was thicker, it reached further, and it spread him open enough to make him hiss in a little pain but mostly in rough pleasure. Sadly, it was surely not enough to fully experience how it would feel being utterly fucked by Nero against that mattress, but V would need to work with what he had.

V bit his lower lip as his hips finally fell into a steady, firm rhythm that matched the one used for his left hand on his hardened member. He slowly fucked himself on the toy, his brows furrowed as his mind ran wild for imagining how it would be to have Nero going wild over him, getting out of control and making him pay for having won once again against him.

The thief groaned when the toy finally brushed the best spot. He redirected his next rocks to that angle, fantasizing about being riding Nero at the moment, imagining that the officer was again restrained but against his bed, moaning his name, his _true _name, as V dominated him once again with each bounce of his body.

He wondered if Nero would agree to tie him up.

If Nero would agree of being the one tied up as well.

If Nero would allow him to fuck him as hard as V was craving to be fucked by the officer.

If Nero also wished that, after lying together and after sating their lust and long-held attraction, it wasn’t a final point for them, but that also wanted to stay with him, and to figure out how to make that relationship that somehow they had come to share work, as complicated as crazy as it was.

“_N-Nero...”_

At some point the officer’s name began to escape from V’s lips non-stop, with more and more desperation, and V didn’t make any attempt of preventing it. He rid his orgasm until the very end, spilling against his clenched, tattooed stomach while panting breathlessly.

After recovering his breath, V slowly removed the toy from himself, the emptiness making him show a disappointed grimace. Dragging himself towards the bathroom to drop in his bathtub after such an intense night was a difficult task, but V managed to do it.

He sat down on it, leaned both of his elbows on the marbled tub and his head back against the wall, and with his now damp hair leaving traces on the tiled wall, V remembered that last thought invading him just before orgasming.

V gulped softly, exhaled a soft incredulous laugh for the romanticism it had carried, and after closing his eyes he decided not to protest anymore when Nico compared his story with Nero with Romeo and Juliet’s one.

Because, as ridiculous as it may sound, that was exactly what it was turning to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weeell, a lot of things happened in this chapter, and I have to say that most part of them were improvised because I had planned to do the theft in some way and it happened quite differently from my initial plan, so I hope I have written it clear enough to be understandable ^^U
> 
> Also, at first I had planned that Nero and V made out once the theft was finished with V as Mr. Vail, buut eventually my kinky part won and that's the reason for the scene that eventually happened to be. Hope you have enjoyed it nevertheless :P
> 
> Next chapter will be more calmed before things get a little more interesting again <3 ;)


	11. Getting out of hands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And there it goes the chapters increasing from 15 to 17 ^^U
> 
> I PROMISE I know where this story is going, and I know how to end it, but the chapters I have planned turn to be longer than I had estimated and therefore the number keeps growing ^^U

On the Monday after the last successful theft carried out by the Poetic Burglar, Nero was summoned to the Chief’s office first thing in the morning. He had already assimilated, his father would want to see him, but having been aware of it _and _not feeling nervous when the moment came were two different things. After all the operation in the auction house had been officially led by Dante, but the idea of carrying it out had been his and, consequently, so it was part of the blame for V’s escape.

Needless to say, Vergil had never reacted well to failure, which was the reason why Nero gulped when his father answered his knocks at the door with a brief ‘_Come in_’ that didn’t give a single clue about his father’s current mood.

Nero let out a deep breath his eyes closed to calm down, opened the door and entered. It wasn’t even 8.30 a.m. yet and Vergil was sitting at his desk typing something on his computer with a half-empty cup of coffee next to the keyboard, a proof that the man had been in the office for at least an hour already, sooner than everyone else as usual.

Vergil raised his eyes briefly from the screen to look at Nero over his glasses, which only used when working on his PC.

“Sit down.”

Nero obeyed in silence. He crossed his legs in a forced relaxed stance, in an attempt to apparent a calm he was very far to feel. Vergil continued working for another 5 minutes while ignoring his presence, applying the same ‘forced waiting’ technique that had been widely used by the Demon Chief in the past when working side by side with Dante, and that never failed to make the suspects nervous. The Sparda Twins had been quite a team back then, with Dante always playing the role of good guy in the interrogations because, as much as his uncle refused to admit it, in his worst he didn’t hold a candle against Vergil’s natural bad side.

Finally, when the clock hanging on the wall marked 8.30 a.m. exactly, Vergil hit the return key and shifted his body to be looking at him. He also removed his glasses, leaving them on the table while digging his grey stare on Nero.

“So, regarding the operation of Saturday...”

Nero tensed, closing his eyes without noticing while expecting to receive his father’s scolding.

“...good job.”

His eyes snapped opened in stupor. For a moment he thought that Vergil was being his usual sarcastic self, but when paying attention to his father’s expression there was the hint of an amused smile in his face.

“You look surprised, officer. Were you expecting to be fired?”

Nero exhaled a short, shocked laugh, still not believing his luck.

“Yeah, I was”, he confessed, uncrossing his legs to better sit on the chair, “I mean, we didn’t manage to catch him. And all the news says that the police weren’t competent enough for being unable to stop the Poetic Burglar while being in the crime scene.”

At that moment he _deeply _regretted his similarity with Dante to talk without thinking, since that last comment caused Vergil to knit his brows while clicking his tongue.

“Yes, but what the news forgets to mention is that, for the first time since the Poetic Burglar began his activities, the police successfully deduced what the man’s objective was. Of course, it goes without saying that catching him would have been the ideal outcome. But, still, we have been closer to do it that any other department in any other city”, Vergil signaled briefly at Nero with his chin in a gesture that the officer had also inherited, though he usually used with less elegance, “and, since such a thing was possible thanks to your hard work, your payment is no longer frozen from this same day.”

“Really?”, Nero exclaimed, smiling more widely when Vergil nodded, “thanks, da—_I mean_, thank you, Chief.”

Vergil nodded briefly as an answer, and Nero had just taken a mental note about marking that day in the calendar as the day in which Vergil praised his work when the Chief continued talking.

“Once said that, there is certain detail regarding the operation that Dante hasn’t managed to clarify to me”, without changing his calm expression or tone, Vergil interlaced his fingers together on the table, “and it’s the silent span of 6 minutes and half that took place after you went to the roof.”

Nero froze, as images of what happened two days ago filled his head.

_Crap_.

Fuck, he had been utterly stupid by lowering his guard around his father, because as much as the Chief could have been serious about lifting his punishment, it was crystal clear that Vergil had delivered that news _before _bringing up the topic to catch him by surprise.

“Would you mind sharing what happened after losing contact?”

Vergil’s tone was still smooth, but his stare was scrutinizing while looking at Nero.

The last gulped, knowing that making up a fake story would be catastrophic. At least at some level, Vergil clearly knew that something involving V had happened. And his father had always been too good at reading him, so trying to escape the situation with a half-hearted lie would be the same as suicide (and not just the professional kind).

He was completely cornered, and the only thing he could do to leave that room alive was to say the truth. Or, at least, _almost _all the truth, since being completely sincere could also have a painful development.

“V was there.”

He noted himself a win when Vergil’s eyes opened more, visibly surprised for his predisposition to admit such a thing.

“I ran into him when stepping in the roof, but he was prepared for it”, Nero didn’t need to fake the frustration that slipped in his tone when continuing, “he managed to tackle me to the ground, we struggled for a bit, and he won. I dropped my walkie during the fight, and by when I recovered it, he was gone.”

Vergil remained silent during the next seconds, assessing his explanation.

“And is that _all _what happened?”

Nero thought he deserved a fucking prize for managing to keep his face neutral while images of V sucking him off in that roof like a natural appeared in his mind.

“Yes, sir. That’s all.”

He sustained his father’s gaze for the following seconds without blinking, suppressing the urge of holding his breath when Vergil reclined back against his chair but keeping his interlaced hands on the desk, since _that _was the posture Vergil often adopted to give his verdict (which usually wasn’t beneficial for the accused).

“Well, under normal circumstances rushing on your own without waiting for your partner would deserve a sanction, but both Dante and Lady have indicated in their reports that the situation turned chaotic quite fast. And that, given the circumstances, you took the right choice. So…”, Vergil looked towards the door, “...I guess you can go.”

It took Nero a moment to react and stand up, since it was the first time that Dante’s optimism about everything going okay with his father had been spot on.

Again, he chanted victory too soon, since Vergil dramatically waited for Nero to be about to open the door of the office to call his name. Nero turned around and his heart beat faster when seeing Vergil’s extremely serious expression.

“As a final advice, since this is the second time that man manages to outmatch you in a fight, I strongly recommend you to redouble your efforts in training. Because if the same thing happens a third time…”, Vergil’s gaze gained harshness, “...you could give a wrong impression. Such as being purposely soft on the Poetic Burglar to let him escape.”

Despite feeling his heart hammering against his chest due to Vergil’s belated accusation, Nero answered Vergil’s warning with a firm ‘_Yes, sir_’ and abandoned the office in direction of his desk. Neither Dante and Lady had arrived yet, and since he had to wait for them to analyze together the theft in the auction house there wasn’t much he could do besides getting lost in his thoughts.

Nero exhaled a sigh and buried his face in his hands, his father’s final words resounding in his head. Truth was that Nero hadn’t gone soft on V in any moment. In the roof he had really given his best, and even if he had omitted _that part_ of the story which could make him be fulminantly expelled from the force, his intention at the moment had been to catch the thief.

However, since Saturday he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about what would’ve happened in case of having won their fight. Would have he really brought V to justice? Or, as Vergil suspected, he would have ultimately let V go?

Nero didn’t know, but the fact that he had already admitted to himself the night before that V escaping wasn’t that bad was an answer itself, not to mention that such a way of thinking was wrong. After all, if V was doing his best to evade justice, he had to give his all in stopping him. That’s how things were supposed to work between criminals and cops. That was what their game was about since the beginning, and the reason his relationship with V had started.

V wasn’t going to stop stealing because of him. Nero knew that, and it wouldn’t cross his mind to try to convince the thief to change his peculiar lifestyle because of him. Not that V was the kind of guy to change for _anyone _anyway. Just a look at the thief was enough to know that the man was satisfied with whom he had become and wasn’t willing to renounce to it, neither to stop taking risks to get what he wanted. Such security was incredibly attractive, and since Nero had never liked doing things the easy way, of course he was going to fall for such a stubborn, problematic guy who happened to also be the hottest person Nero had ever laid eyes upon.

But fuck, what the hell was he supposed to do? To keep going endlessly after V while hoping that the thief was better than him to escape at the last second? Because the thing was that Nero _wanted _to catch V, and prove him that he could be cleverer than him. What he _didn’t want _was to see V imprisoned in a cell, neither to be the culprit for it.

Nero exhaled a long sigh and rested his face in his hands, rubbing it forcibly before cursing to himself. He reclined back his chair, let his head fall back with his eyes closed, and thought. And thought. And thought.

He stayed like that for some minutes, without caring about the confused looks he was attracting from the other officers. At the end he gave up, realizing he wasn’t going to come up with any solution on his own. So, he rudely stood up and went to the restroom mobile in hand, determined to put an end to the fucking headache V was causing him once and for all.

* * *

One of the advantages of having rented Nico’s studio was the abandoned [warehouse](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/84/6b/d5/846bd55575463a3783334dd09edb4248.jpg) that had come with it, since it had proved to be extremely useful to prepare all the gadgets for their thefts in Red Grave. For that reason, while helping Nico organize everything, V couldn’t help to think it was a pity they had to abandon it so soon, which must have showed in his face because Nico shouted from her workbench. 

“Hey, what’s with that gloomy aura?”, V, who was removing the map of the auction house from the wall situated next to the window, could perfectly imagine the goofy smile adorning Nico’s face despite not being looking at her, “please, don’t tell me you are missing your officer already.”

V looked at Nico with irony while finishing folding the floor plan.

“Nico, I saw Nero on Saturday. I’m not that desperate to miss him already.”

He approached the workbench and situated on the side opposite to Nico to help her mounting her last invention, consisting of an improved tool to break electronic lockers.

“Okay, then what is it?”, Nico pressed, now sounding a little concerned, “because you aren’t the chattiest partner ever, but yesterday and this morning you’ve been too mute to be you.”

V chuckled softly, and after exhaling a sigh he looked at Nico.

“Remember that we said that, after this week, we would take a rest?”

Nico nodded.

“Yeah, like we always do”, at that moment her eyes opened more and V was about to slump forward when she brusquely grabbed him by the front of his black tank-top, “w-wait, don’t tell me you were meaning like a rest _rest _and you want to abandon!”

V blinked rapidly when hearing Nico.

“What? No!”

“Because I get that you are dating a cop and all that...”

“Nico, I didn’t mean—”

“...but we are a team! You can’t leave me on the lurch for the first hot guy that catches your attention! A-And I still have so many cool things that we have to try and…”

Seeing that Nico had entered the spiral of not listening to him, V grabbed Nico’s face between his hands, effectively silencing her.

“Nico, I _DON’T _want to abandon”, he put special emphasis on that word so that it sank into the woman, “those have been your words, not mine. And just for the record, accusing me of dropping everything for a hot guy is quite insulting and I deserve a proper apology.”

The fake offended tone he used at the end made Nico exhale a relieved laugh while finally releasing him.

“Jeez, don’t scare me like that!”

“I’m pretty sure you have done it yourself.”

“W-Well, I wouldn’t have if you hadn’t looked like a longing damsel these past two days!”

V exhaled a patient sigh while adjusting his half-up ponytail.

“Alright, first of all like it or not, the only damsel present in this team is you”, V crossed his arms and continued, stopping Nico from protesting against the accurate appellative, “and second, the only motive for my ‘longing’ is that I was studying the possibility of keeping a low profile _but _here. In Red Grave.”

After a moment of silence, Nico emitted a long, impressed whistle, a surprised smile forming in her face.

“Shit. You must like that officer_ really much_”, Nico leaned her hands on the table and reclined forward, looking at V inquisitively, “are you in love with him?”

V’s eyes snapped wide when hearing the question, but his mobile sounding at that moment prevented him from having to answer it. Or, better said, to have to think about the answer.

“Yes?”, V answered promptly while giving his back to Nico, not even looking at the name in the screen.

“_We have to talk._”

V’s heart skipped a beat when hearing Nero at the other side of the line. At that moment he heard steps behind and suddenly Nico was in front of him, voicing a soundless ‘_Is it him?’._

The thief tried to get past Nico but the woman was faster and took his mobile from him, ignoring his glare to turn the speakers on.

“_V, right now I’m not in the mood for games, so if you don’t answer I will go to the gallery myself._”

Nico muttered a soft ‘_Wow, so aggressive. Now I get why you love him_’ that made V flick the woman’s forehead before recovering his mobile to turn the speakers off.

“Well, I’m afraid you will go there in vain, Nero”, he answered as Nico offered him a pouting expression that he didn’t fall for, “Miss Nevan gave me the day off after our traumatic experience in the auction house. Although, between you and me, I think she was searching for an excuse to go visiting Dante for…’comfort’.”

Nero exhaled an exasperated sigh.

“_Okay, thanks for the warning. I will tell my uncle so that he doesn’t fall for that_. _But asides from that, I need to talk to you._”

“Nero, we are already doing that right now.”

“_In person, smartass._”

“Alright. Do you want me to go to the police department then?”

“_LIKE HELL. Don’t you dare to get close._”

“Oh, so you are ashamed of other people seeing us together? I feel hurt, officer.”

“_And more hurt you’re gonna feel if you keep being an ass, you idiot._”

V chuckled softly when hearing the exasperation in Nero’s tone, finding quite amusing that Nero was so easy to stir up, something that he would make sure to use the moment the opportunity presented itself.

At the end they agreed to meet at 4 p.m. in the cafe where Nero used to study. V didn’t realize he was smiling after hanging up until seeing the knowing look Nico was throwing at him.

“Shut up.”

“Dude, I didn’t say anything!”

V flicked the woman’s forehead again nevertheless, in anticipation of all the teasing Nico would deliver for the rest of the day.

* * *

The hours until the meeting passed by quite quickly, as every time he worked with Nico. At some point they had a late lunch in Nico’s studio, and after stopping by his apartment to change himself with the lightest [clothes](https://sc01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB16h5WKFXXXXczXpXXq6xXFXXXG/T-303-gothic-punk-Men-elastic-knitting.jpg_350x350.jpg) he found in his closet in order to stand the too warm weather V took his motorbike to go to the cafe. He arrived 5 minutes before the agreed time, so he ordered a coffee and sat down at the same table Nero was the last time.

The clock was about to mark a quarter past four when the door of the cafe opened and Nero entered, although probably ‘stomped inside’ was a more accurate way to describe it.

V frowned, detecting there was something wrong with the officer. The stiffness in his body was impossible to hide, and it increased even more when Nero’s eyes met his. Without even stopping in the counter to order something, Nero approached and dropped on the chair in front of him with so much energy that the table trembled, forcing V to hold his cup so that it didn’t spill.

“Bad day?”

V tried to use irony to reduce a little the tension surrounding them, but it didn’t work. Whatever Nero was struggling with had to be important, by basing on the serious tone he used when talking.

“This is getting out of hands.”

V blinked.

“And with ‘this’ you mean...?”

Nero exhaled a sigh, but the frustration displayed seemed to be addressed to himself.

“_This_”, Nero signaled between them so emphatically that he was about to make V’s cup fall on the floor, “whatever this is, it’s driving me fucking crazy, and I don’t know what the fuck to do with it anymore.”

V felt his heart skip a beat for the implications Nero’s words seemed to hold, but he managed to keep a serene, imperturbable appearance and tone when talking next.

“Nero, I certainly don’t know what could have happened between you and the Poetic Burglar, but—”

“Look, could you just do me a favor and stop with this damn facade for a moment, please?”

V opened his eyes more when Nero sounded quite weighed down. His first impulse was to agree to Nero’s petition, not liking how puzzled the officer was looking at the moment, but he couldn’t do it. After all, even if he doubted that Nero was pretending in any way, he couldn’t allow himself to reveal his identity. That was a huge step that required a level of trust that, at the moment, he could not share with Nero. Perhaps he never could.

“Alright”, V said seriously, “if you need it, you can talk to me as if I was the Poetic Burglar. Will that work out for you?”

Nero exhaled a short laugh in defeat and nodded.

“Yeah, I guess it will”, Nero took a deep breath, passed a hand through his hair, and continued talking, “okay, this…’game’ you and I have been playing since a month ago is being damn crazy. And although you get on my damn nerves for being so damn good at evading me, I think I had never had so much fun working on catching someone.”

V stared at Nero without blinking, hearing the ‘but’ before Nero pronounced it.

“But this weekend it finally sank into me what will happen if I win. And although I wanna kick your ass for having beat me twice already...”, Nero gulped, his eyes never leaving V’s shocked ones for even one second, “...I don’t want you to end in jail. The idea of you being in prison, of _me _being the one in putting you there...I don’t like it. No: I _hate _it. But that’s what will happen if I do my job right. And if the result is that I’m gonna steal 10 fucking years of your life from you _just_ to win, I prefer to lose and to retire from this fucking case right here and now.”

When Nero breathlessly finished talking, V stared at him for several seconds in silence, speechless, analyzing what the officer had been saying.

Eventually, V placed both of his elbows on the table while sustaining his forehead in his hands, as an incredulous, relieved laugh escaped him. For a moment he had thought that Nero had grown tired of their not precisely common relationship. They hadn’t officially established they were dating, but for V it was obvious they were. After all, V may be a little crazy, but kissing random strangers or orally pleasing them in rooftops wasn’t something he did on a common basis. So, in every way, V had felt as if Nero was breaking up with him, and the way his stomach sank at the thought was so disagreeable that he found himself remembering Nico’s question, considering if the woman was actually right.

But at the end it hadn’t been like that. He had panicked for nothing. Yes, Nero may have hinted that he wanted some kind of separation, but the motive that had driven the officer to make such a suggestion couldn’t be more different than being tired of him.

Right then, Nero had proved with his expression and words that V had become important enough to him to the point that the officer was afraid of doing his job, seriously considering the possibility of leaving the case if that meant prejudicing him.

V hadn’t expected such a level of worry and care, and such a discovery was a little overwhelming, though in a rather good way.

“Damn, Nero”, V chuckled again, raising his gaze from the table to look at Nero while shaking a little his head in disbelief, “how can you be so cute?”

A blush mix embarrassment but overall offense appeared on Nero’s cheeks.

“Hey, I’m being serious here, you idiot!”, Nero blurted out, exhaling a frustrated huff when V had to bite his lower lip not to fully laugh at Nero’s awkwardness, “shit, it serves me right for worrying about a bastard like you—”

The fact that the table wasn’t too big allowed V to easily lean forward to hook his hand on the back of Nero’s neck. He stopped Nero’s offended comment with an intense kiss, and although Nero offered a little of resistance it only was during the first couple of seconds, since soon his eyes fluttered close while tilting his head to the opposite side to help V deepen the kiss more easily.

“Thank you, ma’am. And here is there anything else you would like to order—? Oh _my_.”

V would have probably thrown an annoyed glare at the extremely red waitress if it wasn’t because the woman had begun talking while turning around from the neighbor table, not realizing they were engrossed in kissing until it was too late to stop talking.

“No, thank you. I think I’m pretty served”, V answered while winking with irony, causing the woman to blush even more and let out an embarrassed chuckle before hurrying to another table.

V looked at Nero again, who was quite red for having been carried out, and after sitting back on his chair he talked with a reassuring tone.

“I wasn’t mocking you, Nero. But I do believe you are worrying too much.”

“_Too much_?”, Nero snapped, “V, have you even listened to what I’ve said?”

“I did, and from my point of view, if the Poetic Burglar has decided to get involved with you, it means he is perfectly aware of the risks associated with it, which means that ending in jail enters the realms of possibility. Although…”, V allowed himself to show an arrogant grin, “... considering he managed to fool you twice, perhaps you are overestimating your abilities, officer. And also underestimating his, since I doubt a prison would be enough to keep him captive in the hypothetical case you manage to catch him.”

The snort Nero exhaled proved the officer came back to his usual brusque, confident self. Also, the officer’s tension had practically evaporated, as if the weight he had been carrying since stepping inside the bar had been removed from his shoulders.

V suppressed a smile, thinking it was ironic that among all the people he had met, it had to be a police officer the one who showed such sincere worry for him. Certainly, he had solid motives for his infatuation with Nero. And yes, he was aware he was a coward for using that word and not another he was still afraid to use.

“Okay, so according to you, going soft on him isn’t a valid option?”

Nero’s tone was provoking, but V didn’t fall for it.

“Doing that doesn’t suit you, officer.”

“And how the hell are you so sure of that?”

“Because the mark your teeth left on my neck a week ago faded just recently, which it’s an evidence of how _hard _you like to go.”

“Damn, _V_.”

The thief’s smirk widened. For the light ragged component that had tinged Nero’s voice, it was evident the officer had been a little affected by his words, which was confirmed when Nero stopped one of the waiters to order a cold tea.

“Need to cool off for something, officer?”

“V, _please._”

He laughed at that, deciding to have mercy on Nero and not keeping teasing him for what remained of the afternoon. He waited for the officer to recover his normal color by chewing one of the ice cubes of his recently served drink before resuming the conversation.

“So, may I assume that the only motive of your call today was your worry for that thief?”

Nero took a sip on his drink, left it on the table, and after cleaning his mouth with his knuckles he nodded once.

“Yeah, although there’s something else I wanted to ask you.”

V hummed, crossing his arms while quirking up an eyebrow.

“Let me guess: there is something else you want me to theorize about that man and—”

“Are you free on Friday?”

It had been quite a long time since V was caught totally by surprise, to the point that his mouth fell a little opened in an expression that surely didn’t look very clever.

“I beg your pardon?”

It was Nero’s turn to show a mocking smile when hearing his dumbfounded question.

“What? You’ve been so busy stealing that you have forgotten about dates?”

V exhaled a soft laugh while leaning his crossed arms on the table.

“No, but seeing how reluctant you always are to be seen with me, I confess I wasn’t expecting such an initiative coming from you”, V kept his smile but skepticism was noticeable in his face and tone, “so can I ask you why are you suddenly interested?”

Nero played with the empty bottle of his drink, passing it from one hand to the other for some seconds before answering.

“Because you seem like the kind of guy who could disappear in a blink”, the resigned, bordering sad tone Nero used made V’s heart skip a beat, which shook the walls V had forced himself to raise during the conversation, “today you are here, working on Red Grave in that art gallery, but who says you won’t be gone tomorrow? So, before that happens, or before _something else_ happens that maybe makes you spend some time in certain place, I would like to know more about you.”

V was quite good at reading people, and the same way that Nero’s worry for him had been impossible to misinterpret, at that moment Nero was being sincere. There were no double intentions in his words, just unique, genuine interest. But still, V had to be sure about something.

“When you say you want to know about me…”, V tilted his head a little, “...you are wrongly meaning the Poetic Burglar, or Mr. Vail?”

“None”, Nero answered promptly, pointing at him with chin, “Just you: V.”

V gulped. The correct thing as Mr. Vail would be to reply something ironic about being unable not to be himself. The same way, if his priority was to keep his identity in secret, he would reject Nero’s petition without a second thought.

However, as it had already happened once or twice, Nero showing a sincere interest towards his persona was such a fresh breeze of air that he was unable to say no to it. After all, as weird as their relationship was, it was _still _a relationship, and in order to make it work there had to be a minimum of things to know about the other pair.

And after so many years of being him and Nico alone and with only occasional one-night stands to release his basic needs, V was ready _and _willing to be himself with the officer, though always being careful not to share too much not to risk neither Nico’s security nor his. That went without saying.

“Alright, but Friday is a little complicated day for me, since I have an unavoidable commitment. What about Thursday?”

Nero looked initially surprised, as if he hadn’t been too sure about V accepting the offer. In fact, the officer’s tone when talking next sounded less rude and more calmed, letting V know that despite his apparent security the officer had been slightly nervous of being rejected. Once again, the word ‘cute’ appeared in V’s head, but this time he refrained to say it.

“I can. But it will have to be late. I doubt I can be out before 7 p.m.”

“Then I assume we will go out for dinner.”

“Yeah, but I choose the place.”

“Why? Don’t you trust my taste?”

“I don’t trust _anyone _who wears accessories that cost half of my salary.”

“Well, I can always lower my standards if necessary. Or inviting you, if spending money in a good restaurant is a big no for you.”

“Sorry, thanks for the offer but I prefer to pay for a dinner in a normal restaurant with _honestly earned _money.”

“Are you insinuating my job in the gallery is dishonest, Nero?”

The offended tone he adopted in his last question made Nero roll his eyes with a smile.

“Look, since the date was _my _idea, _I _choose the place. Period”, Nero pointed at V’s coffee with his eyes, “have you finished already? Because I should be back in the office in...”, Nero checked the hour and his eyes opened wide, “...fuck, I’m gonna be late.”

V chuckled when noticing Nero’s stress and touched briefly his arm before standing up.

“Come on. I will take you there”, he raised a conciliatory hand when seeing Nero about to heatedly deny the offer, “do not worry, I will stop a street away so that your Chief doesn’t kill you for fraternizing too much with a ‘suspect’.”

They had left the place after paying their drinks when Nero finally replied to his comment.

“Yeah, definitely my father would have killed me if he knew about what happened in the roof.”

V looked at Nero with surprise, not having expected that the officer brought out such a topic. He almost, _almost_, let out a teasing comment about the matter, but fortunately he recovered in time to ask a confused ‘_What do you mean?_’ that made Nero tsk for failing in catching him out of guard _again_.

As V promised, he parked the motorbike in a narrow alley a street away from the Police Department so that the officer didn’t have to suffer from deserved but unwanted questions. He observed with amusement how Nero ‘discreetly’ took a peek around the corner before deciding the coast was clear.

“Okay, gotta go”, Nero turned towards V, “thanks for the ride.”

V nodded, hooking his thumbs on the pocket of his dark trousers while still leaning against his motorbike.

“Anytime, officer”, he adopted a playful tone before continuing, “I’m kind of disappointed though. The ending of our last trip was more...interesting.”

V realized that, perhaps, he didn’t read people as well as he thought when, after observing him for a moment, Nero suddenly placed his left hand on his hip and kissed him calmly but with enough intensity to make a nice pool of heat settle in his stomach, especially when Nero’s tongue languidly rolled around his own.

The thief closed his eyes while automatically getting more into the kiss, placing his right hand on Nero’s shoulders and his left on the officer’s hip. V had already initiated the second, deeper kiss and was opening his legs in order to encourage Nero to settle more comfortably between them when his instincts were flipped, making him reach down with his left hand to grab Nero’s wrist before this one could handcuff him.

Nero grunted in defeat while breaking the kiss, looking at V with an annoyance that didn’t manage to completely mask a hint of admiration.

“Okay, Mr. Vail, can you tell me how the hell a gallery assistant has so good reflexes?”

V smirked slowly when hearing the officer’s grumpy question. He had to admit that Nero had been quite good, since he hadn’t noticed the officer reaching for the handcuffs until feeling them close. He would need to be careful when they crossed paths again in a future.

“Well, perhaps _your _reflexes leave much to be desired, officer”, he nudged his nose playfully against Nero, deeply enjoying the way the officer gulped, since the man clearly wanted to close the distance between them again, “have a nice afternoon, Nero. I’ll be waiting for your call.”

V reluctantly pulled away in order to mount his bike, the distance reducing the thick sexual tension that had settled down between them.

He said Nero goodbye with his usual nod, and while the officer lazily raised a hand to say goodbye with a resigned (beautiful) smile in his face, V decided that, as much as he trusted and loved Nico, he would keep in secret the fact that he had arranged a date with Nero that same week.

Because V was extremely looking forward to it, and the last thing he wanted was that his friend wisely convinced him from attending it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The date was supposed to happen in this chapter, but all the conversations of the chapter turned to be longer than expected so I decided to stop it her or the chapter would have turned too long. Hope you have enjoyed it nevertheless <3 :)


	12. You won't

“Okay, today it’s been confirmed that Verg uses seminars to torture us.”

Nero glared at Lady when this one answered Dante’s statement with an effusive nod.

“What?”, the woman said innocently when seeing his look, “can’t I agree with your uncle?”

“No, you can’t because you’ve been sleeping for the two damn hours the seminar has lasted.”

“Hey, that’s a proof of how boring it was.”

Nero opened his mouth but eventually closed it, not finding anything else to say against the woman’s sounded logic.

“At least it hasn’t been worse that the last course”, he commented when they were back in their desks, “and the speaker of the second part knew what she was talking about.”

“Yeah, she is the only thing that was worth it”, Dante dropped in his chair and crossed his arms while leaning his legs on the desk, “and she was a beauty.”

Nero was beginning to gather his things when he saw someone familiar approaching from behind Dante. He interchanged a look with Lady, who read what he was thinking because the woman nodded subtly with a conspiratorial smile.

“I’m surprised you didn’t embarrass yourself by asking for her number”, he said when the newcomer was close enough to listen to their conversation.

His uncle snorted, unaware of the person who had suddenly stopped behind him when hearing Nero’s casual comment.

“If the situation was different, I’d have.”

“Reaally?”, Lady took over, leaning her elbows on her desk to place her chin on her hands, “then that means that you aren’t in the market anymore?”

Dante uncrossed his arms to place his hands behind his head, displaying a self-mocking smile while reclining back with his chair.

“Yeah, but I’m on reserve, waiting until the right person forgives me for being an idiot to—”

“Captain, please, do you have a minute?”

Nero and Lady huffed with annoyance when a detective approached Trish at that moment to talk to her. He would have liked that Dante finished the sentence, although the way his uncle was about to fall from his chair while turning around to look at Trish was very worth it. Nero was barely able to bite back a laugh, on the contrary than Lady who exhaled a loud ‘_Pffff_ with her shoulders shaking from poorly contained laughter.

“...very well, leave it in my table and I will take a look at it when I have a moment.”

“Alright, Captain. Thank you very much!”

When the detective _finally _left, Trish’s attention immediately focused on Dante, who gulped thickly.

“So…”, Trish tilted her head a little to the side with an amused expression, “...have you suddenly got tired of shamelessly flirting with young women? I am impressed.”

Nero didn’t bother to be subtle while staring at the pair. After finally recovering from the surprise Dante chuckled nervously.

“Come on, captain: you should know that mature ladies with wrinkles have been kinda my thing for a while.”

Nero was about to facepalm for the extremely improvable sentence that obviously provoked a roll of eyes from Trish before passing by Dante’s desk. Nero was mouthing a silent ‘_what the fuck man_’ towards Dante that gained him a defensive shrug when Trish suddenly turned around. Nero and Lady had barely time to poorly pretend they were busy doing nothing when the Captain spoke with an overly casual tone.

“Are you staying in the office until late too?”

Dante’s eyes opened more, as if he hadn’t expected the question.

“Yeah, I have to finish some things.”

Trish nodded before talking again with a soft smile.

“I’ll let you know when I’m going to order dinner then.”

Dante’s mouth was still half-opened when Trish continued her way without turning around this time. After some seconds during which Nero was really tempted to take a picture of his uncle’s dumbfounded face, Dante looked at Lady and him.

“Did she just—?”

“Yep.”

“Was that a—?”

“Date? Oh yeah, cowboy~”

Dante exhaled an incredulous chuckle that made Nero smile, feeling honestly happy for having helped those disasters a little.

“Well, good luck with the dinner, old man. See you tomorrow.”

“What?! You’re leaving so soon?”, Lady pouted, “It’s not fair! I still have to stay here another full hour!”

Nero was about to reply that doing extra hours had his advantages when Dante hummed, which provoked him to tense because he knew _that sound_ very well. It was a sound he had learned to fear, since it meant his uncle was going to use his scary intuition to accurately guess what Nero was going to do.

Warily, he looked at Dante, getting ready to make up an excuse that the detective wouldn’t surely believe. However, it seemed that his little help with Trish made Dante overcome his incontinence to intrude in his private matters, because the man simply winked at him playfully.

“See you tomorrow then, kid. Be good, okay?”

Nero offered Dante a small, surprised smile and nodded before waving his hand towards Lady, who looked at them alternatively before muttering a suspicious ‘_hey, what I’m missing?_’ that Nero pretended not to hear by rapidly reaching the exit.

He had already set foot on the street when his mobile vibrated, announcing an incoming message.

_>> **Dante (6:46 p.m.)** \- remember to use protection 🍆🍩🛏_ _＼(*^▽^*)/_

Nero slowly closed his eyes with certain mortification while starting to walk towards his apartment, thinking that Dante having his back was certainly a double-edge sword.

* * *

Keeping his date from Nico during those three days had resulted to be more complicated than V expected, and so it was to convince her that taking _that _afternoon off wouldn’t affect their schedule at all.

At the end, when he was already running out of arguments, V decided to play a last card by suggesting the woman to marathon-watch her favorite series about crafting. Nico had loved the idea so much that when he abandoned her studio around 5.30 p.m., she was with her eyes glued to the screen, talking aloud about what was happening in the episode even after V said her goodbye and closed the door behind him.

The little decency V still had was telling him he should feel ashamed for manipulating his friend like that, but thinking about it logically she was having a rather funny afternoon thanks to him, so at the end it was a win-win situation for the both of them. Besides, after standing two whole hours of learning how to build things he couldn’t care less about, his capacity of feeling guilty had been drastically reduced to zero, like the possibilities of Nico finding about his own plans.

At 6 p.m. V arrived at his apartment, and an exact hour later he exited from it. The day had been extremely warm but nights in Red Grave were always colder, which forced V to wear a [jacket](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/23/0d/6d/230d6d348e34c8a11881e39d7a897f27.jpg) over the [clothes](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/6d/40/de/6d40dedf38180cc6d943b5274210e0f0.jpg) he had picked for that night.

Nero had stubbornly refused to tell him where they would be having dinner, establishing the meeting point in a small plaza at 7.30 p.m. which V deduced had to be close the place they were going to attend. For once V decided to use a public bus to go there, and since he didn’t use it often, he forgot about the delays associated to the public transport, which made him step down on the bus stop almost ten minutes after the accorded hour.

Some extra minutes later he reached the plaza. Nero was already there, checking his mobile while leaning against the back of a bench with his legs crossed. V hinted a small smirk when noticing that the officer had put some extra effort in dressing himself: for once, his jeans weren’t worn-out, and instead of a simple t-shirt Nero had picked a denim [shirt](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/75/b8/6a/75b86a8080e06f9ba8125d7d9e83def0.jpg) that he was wearing with the first button loose. V couldn’t help to think he was going to deeply enjoy popping the whole clothing open. That, if the night went according to his expectations, something that he planned to achieve at any cost.

Trying to keep that kind of thoughts under control for the time being, V began to approach Nero. He was sure he could do it silently enough so that the officer didn’t notice his presence until it was too late, but doing that would surely incite Nero to mention The Poetic Burglar, which was something V had promised himself to avoid doing at any cost. He was risking himself enough already by agreeing to the whole date thing after all.

By when Nero raised his face from his mobile V was already in front of him.

“I’m sorry for the wait, I didn’t take into account this city horrible transport. I hope you weren’t worried about being jitted.”

Nero huffed, storing the mobile in his pocket.

“Nah, I thought you were having trouble parking”, Nero stopped talking and leaned forward, squinting his eyes, “wait, are you wearing an eyeliner?”

V kept his face neutral, not reading where Nero was going.

“Yes. Is there any problem with it?”

“Which brand are you using?”, V’s surprise must have showed in his expression because Nero continued, “Lady wants to give her girlfriend something of make-up for her birthday, but she has zero idea about what to choose.”

The naturality of Nero’s answer made V relax again, and also to insult himself for having doubted for a tiny moment that Nero was the kind of person in criticizing what someone decided to wear or not.

“Well, if she needs any advice, you have my permission to give her my number and I’ll gladly recommend her.”

Nero nodded.

“Yeah, maybe I do that”, the officer pointed with his head at the other side of the street, “come on, we’re late already thanks to you.”

“Right after you.”

The place Nero had chosen turned to be a burger restaurant whose exterior didn’t do justice to the [interior](https://wanderlustpoint.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/burgerjoint3.jpg). The site was very crowded even if it was still Thursday, with people forming a queue on the counter to order take-out or simply waiting for a table to be free. The range of ages was pretty disparate, and so it was the social class of the people attending it, which told V that perhaps that place had more renown than he thought.

Their reserved table was situated in one of the corners of the room. They were led there by a young waitress who efficiently took order of their drinks before quickly disappearing with a bright smile that, in case of being pretended, was extremely credible.

“Damn, it’s been a bunch since the last time I came here”, Nero commented while taking a seat, “but the place hasn’t changed at all: it keeps being as full as usual—”

V didn’t realize Nero had stopped talking to stare at him until he was in the process of removing his jacket. He stopped mid-action, unable to prevent a small grin from showing in his face when noticing Nero’s eyes briefly roaming in the patch of displayed skin on his front.

“Penny for your thoughts?”, he ironically said, causing Nero to focus on his eyes again.

“I was thinking that you are dressing to the nines for this kind of place.”

V’s grin widened when hearing Nero’s too defensive tone. He left his jacket on the empty space of his seat and leaned his elbows on the table next, mimicking Nero’s own posture.

“Well, since you didn’t tell me where we were going, I preferred to dress appropriately just in case. You look handsome too, by the way.”

“Thanks, but I don’t recall having called you handsome at any moment.”

“No, but your eyes have.”

Nero rolled them in defeat, reaching for one of the menus of the table.

“If you want some advice the special burger is the best.”

“I will take that then.”

“You sure? You haven’t even looked at the menu.”

“I will trust your judgement. Though if I don’t like it, I will expect some kind of compensation.”

Nero’s eyes glinted at that. He looked about to retort something but at that moment the waitress arrived with their drinks and proceeded to take their order. V waited for the woman to leave before resuming their conversation.

“So you’ve been here before?”

Nero nodded, taking a sip of his beer before answering.

“Yeah, but last time was years ago. It was kind of a tradition to celebrate my birthday eating here.”

“Really? I find difficult to imagine the Chief of the Police Department eating in this kind of place.”

“Yeah, well, he didn’t use to come. He was usually too busy, or out of the city”, despite his words, Nero’s tone didn’t come out as bittersweet or blaming but resigned, as if he would have liked that things were different but that he understood why they couldn’t, “actually, I think he only came here once. And honestly, it’d been better if he hadn’t because the waiter that attended us almost ended in tears for my father’s complains.”

Nero’s mortified expression made V laugh quietly.

“Is that the reason why you chose this place? To avoid running into him?”

Nero’s eyes opened more before showing a caught-red-handed expression.

“Yeah, kind of. I don’t want him to freeze my salary again for being seen together.”

V suppressed a smile, remembering once again every time that Nico referred Nero as ‘his Juliet’ because, according to her, they were clearly living a forbidden love story.

“Your father is certainly an interesting person”, V hesitated for a moment, but curiosity won against his will, “if I may ask, what about your mother? Is she the strict type as well?”

Nero shrugged before crossing his arms on the table.

“I don’t know. I never got to meet her.”

V remained silent for a moment when his suspicions about Nero’s mother fate were confirmed.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

Nero’s brusque snort surprised him.

“Don’t be. She wasn’t what you’d call a motherly model”, V frowned, the gesture being enough to cause Nero to continue after a short pause, “long story short, my father hooked up with a criminal he was working to catch, got her accidentally pregnant, and learned he had a son after she gave birth in prison and my blood confirmed he was the father. She didn’t want to have anything to do with me, so my father got the full custody. Supposedly she died on a raid three years later, but the operation was so shitty and sloppy that some bodies were never found. So who knows, maybe she is still out there.”

V studied Nero’s slightly tense expression.

“And aren’t you curious to know what could have been of her?”

Nero scratched the back of his head and talked again after shrugging.

“Yeah, from time to time I am. But at the end I always think that, in all effects, Trish is my real mother. She has been there for me since I was a kid, and nothing’s gonna change that. So wasting time thinking about that other woman isn’t worth it.”

V nodded approvingly.

“I agree. Someone who can abandon their children so easily do not deserve the less of our attention.”

He took another sip of his drink, not noticing the betraying pronoun until Nero looked inquisitively at him.

“What about you? You said you had no family, right?”

V nodded and left his glass on the table to continue talking with a self-mocking tone.

“That’s correct. I had no name: I was but two days old when I was left in an orphanage.”

Nero half-closed his eyes.

“That’s a quote from William Blake, right?”

V’s mouth fell half-opened, a wave of intense attraction addressed at Nero traversing by him.

“Yes, indeed it is”, he offered Nero a sincere impressed smile, “I wouldn’t have imagined you were familiar with his works.”

“And I wasn’t until two weeks ago”, Nero pointed at him with his chin, his tone turning ironic, “but there is certain someone who seems to be obsessed with him, so studying his poems seemed like the logical thing to do.”

The temptation of falling into their usual teasing game was rather big, but V managed to refrain himself. Up till then, the night was being surprisingly...mundane, as if they were a normal couple getting to know each other, and probably it was a good idea to keep it like that in order to play safe.

“And what happened to you after leaving the orphanage?”, Nero inquired then, “I mean, did you always know what you wanted to do?”

V averted his eyes to the side, thinking carefully about how he could answer with the truth without actually revealing too much.

“No, I didn’t. In fact, it took me years to find out my...vocation, so to speak”, he leaned his chin on his hand, “thanks to the part time jobs I did during my stay in the orphanage, I managed to save up enough money to spend two years studying art on my own after leaving. Then I spent another year or so doing more occasional jobs until daring to jump to something less stable and riskier, but more rewarding. During the following years I tried some collaborative work, but I eventually discovered that socialization was not for me. Finally, five years ago I discovered a job that allowed me to exploit all my talents, and of which I could hardly get bored, and since then everything has gone pretty well for me.”

When he stopped talking, V was expecting that Nero tried to ask for more details about the vaguest parts of his explanation.

What he got instead was a shocked silence and Nero staring at him with his mouth half-opened in disbelief.

“V... how old are you?”

The thief blinked twice and smiled with amusement, suspecting what Nero’s reaction was going to be after hearing his answer.

“Thirty-one.”

“_What_?!”, despite the noise invading the place, Nero’s exclamation provoked some people to look at him with curiosity as the officer kept staring at V, who was having difficulties on suppressing the laughter, “you’re lying.”

“No, I am not.”

“Come on, it’s impossible you are seven fucking years older than me.”

“I can show you my id card if you don’t believe me.”

“Sorry, but I don’t trust any documentation coming from you.”

“Then I’m afraid I cannot do anything to prove it to you, so feel free to keep believing I am... how old did you think I was?”

“I don’t know, but definitely not past the thirties.”

V laughed quietly.

“I’ll take that as a compliment”, he tilted his head to the side a little, “is this a problem for you?”

Nero looked at him without understanding.

“What?

“The age difference.”

The officer blinked and stared at V as if he was dumb.

“V, It occurs me a couple of other motives for _not _dating you besides your age.”

The thief had to laugh at Nero’s ironic comment.

“You are right. We haven’t talked yet about our interests”, he looked at Nero teasingly, “who knows, perhaps we end discovering our tastes do not align enough to make this work.”

At that moment the waitress finally approached with their respective orders. Nero waited for her to leave it on the table and go before finally answering with an innocent tone that didn’t reach the intensity of his blue stare.

“Well, we have the whole night to discover it.”

V smirked, liking quite a lot how that sentence had sounded.

* * *

“So? Did you like it despite not being a super expensive place?”

Nero automatically held the door opened for V as this one exited while zipping his jacket.

“I don’t know from where you’ve got the impression I like to waste my money in expensive restaurants.”

Nero purposely stared at V’s obviously expensive clothes from head to toe without any subtleness.

“Call it police intuition”, he began walking down the street next to V, hands hooked on his pockets, “but what? Did you like it or not?”

“I did. Though I’m impressed you were able to eat _that _dessert after the main dish.”

“That’s because I’m still in my twenties and I can handle everything.”

He was expecting the way V slowly turned his face to look at him, but he still suffered a small shiver down his spine when seeing the dangerous grin the thief displayed.

“Be careful, officer. You shouldn’t underestimate your elders. Not to mention...”, he let V take a hold on his arm and get closer to whisper the next sentence in his ear, “...that such a claim can tempt others to discover how much you can exactly handle.”

Nero’s breath hitched for a moment when V finished the sentence nudging his nose against his ear. He was considering the possibility of pining V against the closest wall to kiss him dumb when the thief separated and talked, though without releasing his arm yet.

“So, did you have anything else planned for the evening?”

Nero snorted.

“Hey, I have already chosen the dinner, so it’s your turn to pick what to do.”

V thought in silence for a moment before talking pensively.

“I think I have come up with something, though it’s a little far away. Almost a 30 minutes’ walk from here.”

“That’s not that far”, Nero frowned with curiosity, “where are we going?”

V looked at him teasingly.

“Given that you didn’t want to tell me where we were going to have dinner, you will have to wait to see it.”

Nero certainly didn’t have the right to protest, so he accepted following V without making more questions.

For the time the walk lasted they continued talking about themselves. V kept being extremely careful about everything he said, never giving too many details about specific dates or places that could reveal his identity. Still, Nero learned some bits and pieces of the thief’s past, such as the man beginning to get those tattoos covering his body soon after turning sixteen (which almost caused him to be expelled from the orphanage), or that his first part-time jobs had been pretty disparate, including a tattoo shop, a library, a bar, and even occasional shots as a model (that last finding made Nero have to suppress the temptation of asking V to see some of those pictures).

On his part, V asked him about how his preparation for the detective exam was going. Nero eventually found himself confessing that one of the reasons why he was working so hard was that he wanted to become a detective before turning twenty-five, since that was the age when his father became one.

“Do you think you can make it?”, V inquired with curiosity, causing Nero to exhale a long sigh.

“It depends on how the written test goes. I don’t think I have any problem with the physical tests but the theoretical are a pain in the ass. There is a whole section focused on normative which is a total shit.”

“But you said there always exist the possibility of you solving a big case to be directly promoted. Perhaps you could focus on that.”

Nero huffed, since the only big case he was currently working on was The Poetic Burglar’s one. He was about to make a comment about it when V suddenly stopped.

“We have arrived.”

Nero followed V’s eyes, his own opening more when seeing the thief was referring to Red Grave’s central park.

“There? But I thought it was closed for renovation until next week.”

“Technically it is. But I pass next to it every day and there are never any guards around, so I doubt something catches us if we enter.”

When the man began to walk with perfect ease towards the gated doors Nero rapidly grabbed his arm.

“You kidding, right?”, Nero insisted, his stupor growing even more when V’s expression kept being scarily serious, “V, are you really proposing to illegally break into a park?”

“Well, I guess I am if you want to put it that way…”

“There’s no other way to put it, you idiot!”

“... but from my point of view, the only thing I’m suggesting is having a nice walk through a park that is going to open in the following days nevertheless.”

Nero kept staring at V, still waiting that the thief told him he was joking, but he didn’t. In fact, V made the most of his stupor to speed up and turn the corner towards the side of the park.

“_V!_”, Nero hissed, cursing when the thief didn’t stop, “listen, V, I’m serious right now: if you dare to sneak inside, I swear that I’m arresting you for—”

When Nero turned the corner, V was nowhere to be seen, which caused him to stop talking.

“V?”, he ventured, jumping startled when hearing a landing sound close to him.

“Yes, Nero?”

He rapidly turned towards the place where V’s voice had come from, his eyes opening wide when seeing the thief at the other side of the gate, not a hair out of place.

“What the—? How the fuck—?”, Nero stopped talking for the sake of exhaling a defeated grunt with his eyes closed, “okay, now I get it: you want to be the fucking death of me, don’t you?”

V chuckled at the other side and crossed his arms, not looking worried in the least to Nero’s dismay.

“If it’s of any consolation, I think there are more people who decided to do the same because I'm hearing them right now.”

“That’s not _any _consolation”, Nero hissed with exasperation when V looked way too comfortable with the whole situation, “what the fuck do you think it’ll happen if another cop sees us inside the park? Or if he sees _me _trying to jump this damn gate?”

“Absolutely nothing, since you can always say you have heard voices inside and you were checking everything was okay.”

Nero opened his mouth, stood in that position for two whole seconds, and cursed because certainly V had a point.

“Fuck, _fine_.”

It didn’t take him much to cross at the other side to join V, who was displaying the most mocking smile ever.

“Nice jump.”

Nero glared at V when hearing the overly impressed tone. He was going to mention how suspicious it was that a simple gallery assistant had such talent in sneaking in places when V’s mouth silenced his.

A soft grunt escaped him, and Nero realized that he had missed V’s lips on his more than he thought. He kissed V back while placing his hands on the thief’s hips as V’s ones chose his shoulders to stay. When they separated Nero was about to seek V’s lips again but stopped when seeing the excessively satisfied smile V was offering him.

“What?”

“I wasn’t expecting that a law enforcement officer was so willing to break the rules for me. It’s kind of flattering.”

Nero rolled his eyes and exhaled a defeated sigh.

“I guess that having a completely normal date was too much to ask for you, huh?”

V chuckled, separating from him to hook his hands inside the pockets of his jacket.

“In my defense I must say that, if the circumstances had been different, I would have suggested to visit a couple of exhibitions as the ‘art freak’ I am”, against his will Nero had to push back a smile when V repeated the term he had used before in the dinner to tease the thief, “however, since we both worked until late, such an option was not feasible, and certainly going out for drinks after dinner wasn’t wise if we both want to be in perfect shape to work tomorrow. So, considering our lack of options, I thought a walk through Red Grave’s main park was in order.”

“And you couldn’t have chosen a park open to the public, right?”

“I could, but the views wouldn’t be as good, don’t you think?”

Nero had to laugh at V’s nerve, though he had to admit the man was right. The park’s [main path](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/22/d6/82/22d68248ebb4b9d8da60957aa6b5c362.jpg) was a really nice walk, a thought that was apparently shared by several young pairs because the place was full of them. Wherever they looked there were people sitting in benches, holding hands, kissing, or making out on the grass in a way that perhaps bordered public indecency if Nero paid enough attention, thing that he preferred not to do.

“See?”, V commented with a natural tone, “if by any chance we run into another officer, you can always save yourself by arresting all these poor civilians.”

“Yeah, what a relief.”

After his ironic reply they remained in a comfortable silence, continuing walking with a slow, unhurried pace.

Nero gulped softly, hesitating between asking something that had been rounding his head for a while. He was still making his mind about it when V made the choice for him.

“What is it?”

Nero sighed, knowing that pretending not having anything to ask would be rather impossible with the thief.

“Do you do this often?”

V quirked up an eyebrow.

“Do you mean sneaking into parks at night to have a walk with a police officer? No, it is certainly a first time for me.”

“That’s _not _what I meant, asshole.”

V laughed briefly at his snapped tone, which made Nero hold an internal debate about insulting the thief or kissing him again instead

“My apologies. What did you mean then?”

“Dating people”, V’s sardonic expression turned into a surprised one, as if the question had caught him off guard, “you’ve commented during the dinner that you never stay much in the same place. And with the ‘job’ you have I bet it’s not very easy to keep a relationship, right?”

“I don’t understand you: being a gallery assistant is a rather common job”, Nero deadpanned at V, causing this one to let out a quiet chuckle before answering with a tone that sounded acceptably serious, “no, I do not date often. The ‘no-string-attached’ kind of relationships have always suited me better. Up till now at least.”

Nero observed at V with curiosity.

“What made you change your mind then?”

V remained silent for a moment, continuing walking some steps before turning to look at Nero.

The glint the thief’s eyes displayed caused Nero’s heart to skip a beat, because this time it didn’t just hold the usual want and desire, but also certain _something _that Nero suspected he was beginning to feel for the thief.

Something he knew it would manage to complicate everything more if possible.

“If you aren’t able to deduce it for yourself, perhaps you’re too naive by assuming you will be able to pass that detective exam.”

Nero’s eyes snapped wide, not having expected the retort, but since V’s eyes and tone didn’t match the content of the jibe, the ‘_Jerk_’ Nero let out sounded half-hearted.

When they reached the other end of the park, Nero was grateful when they could simply abandon the place through the gated door like civilized people, since the latch was in their side.

“See? We could leave the place safe and sound.”

Nero limited himself to half-close his eyes at V, giving up in trying to convince the man about the serious trouble they would have gotten themselves into. And yes, probably the thief had a point in saying it wouldn’t have been _that _serious, but Nero wasn’t going to admit that.

The street where they had ended was one of the most expensive [residential areas](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/07/53/5a/07535a3aaaa2df532fc5967fde1607a9.jpg) situated rather close to the center, which provoked Nero to whistle while getting ahead of V without noticing.

“Damn, how much do you think the people around here pay for the rent?”

“Around 3000$.”

V’s security when answering made Nero turn towards the thief, who was leaning against one of the small columns situated next to the individual gates. Nero was about to ask V why he had stopped when the thief extracted a key from his jacket, causing Nero’s eyes to be about to leave their orbits.

“Wait a minute, do you live _here_?”

V chuckled while playing with his keys absentmindedly.

“Yes, although I am paying half of that price, since the friend that rented it to me owed me a little favor.”

“Still it’s a fucking bunch of money.”

“For a child in his twenties maybe, but for an adult in his thirties it’s not that much._”_

Nero blinked and pretended to be looking for something in his pocket to extract his hand showing his middle finger to V, who simply smiled charmingly at him.

Unlike the other silences that had fallen between them during that night, the one that settled down was the kind in provoking Nero’s stomach to clench, though probably the way V’s eyes were gleaming in the light of the hanging streetlight had something to do with it.

Honestly, Nero didn’t know who was the first one in moving.

What he knew was that, one second, V and him were playing a heated staring contest, and the next he had caged V against that column and their lips were connecting desperately, his hands clutching at V’s jacket as the thief’s hands did it in his shirt, threatening to accidentally pop it open.

Damn, Nero thought as their tongues rolled together.

Fuck, he had been wanting this to happen since that persecution that almost finished with them fucking in that alley, since V blew his damn mind in that roof with one of the best blowjobs he had ever received.

And now that he finally had it, now that he _finally _had the chance of having V for himself without any fucking interruptions…

Shit.

Why the hell his brain and instincts were suddenly telling him that this could be a _very _bad idea?

“So...”, V breathed against his mouth, sensually grinding against him and causing Nero to clench his jaw not to moan, “...do you want to come in?”

‘_Yes_’, every nook and cranny of Nero’s body was shouting, but his mouth surprised him by speaking differently.

“I don’t know.”

V chuckled, clearly not believing him.

“I see I was mistaken and police officers have some minimal sense of humor”, at that moment V seemed to notice Nero’s puzzled expression because his playful expression was replaced by a confused one while knitting his eyebrows, “wait, are you serious?”

Nero gulped, forcing himself to separate for V, who kept looking at him inquisitively as he struggled to find the words.

When some seconds passed and he hadn’t found a plausible excuse, or at least one he dared to say aloud, he cursed softly and insulted himself internally , feeling utterly stupid because the whole date thing had been his idea. He had been the one in impulsively asking V out, because at the moment learning more about the man he was slowly and irremediably falling for had imposed about everything else.

But now that they were finally going to take the step they both had been craving to take, he was suddenly scared of it. Scared of falling even more for V in case of crossing that door. Scared of being unable to do his job right the next time they were fated to meet. Scared of the man getting tired of a cop who couldn’t even do something as basic as catching his target. Scared of V suddenly disappearing not just from Red Grave but also from his life.

“You know, I’m _really _hating that Poetic Burglar right now”, V’s sudden, completely sincere comment caused Nero to look at him with surprise, “I’m sure he is the culprit of you refusing to do what we both know you want to do.”

Nero exhaled a short sigh.

“Yeah, kind of”, he scratched the back of his head, avoiding V’s gaze, “sorry, V, I would like to, but—”

“But you’re thinking too much again”, V completed with an ironic tone that didn’t manage to mask his irritation entirely, which made Nero exhale another frustrated sigh.

“Yeah, probably I am”, he took a step backwards, “but I have the feeling that it’s better this way.”

After a silence that now it was only tense, V talked with calm tone that didn’t match his general tense posture, which betrayed the thief was pissed off for the turn of events.

“Keep convincing yourself about that”, V’s tone turned warning next, “but, if you allow me a small piece of advice, if I was in your place, I would stop wasting all the chances that present in front of you, since you never know what can happen from day to day.”

Nero barely registered the cutting ‘_Good night_’ V let out before the man turned around and entered his apartment without looking back, closing the door behind with a slam.

During the next couple of minutes Nero simply stared at the door without actually seeing it, only thinking about what V had said. About what he felt.

And then, after cursing to himself, he made his choice.

* * *

After closing the door behind him with more brusqueness than he had intended, V left his keys on the small table next to the door, the metallic noise sounding extremely loud in the too silent room.

V removed his jacket next and hung it from the rack at the entrance before entering the small living room to drop on the sofa, where he lay by using the armrest as a pillow. He rested the back of his arm over his closed eyes, hearing Nico’s mocking voice in his head accusing him of being a drama queen, but he simply ignored it. He could only focus on the frustration invading him, which was causing him to grit his teeth until his jaw hurt.

He didn’t use to curse but in the darkness of the room V did it, because after three times of having been interrupted, of being forced to stop when the good part was about to start, he had thought that finally that night would be different. He thought that he and Nero were in the same page, and probably they had been until Nero had to go and ruin it by overthinking everything.

Damn, he deeply regretted not being physically stronger to drag that stupid and hot officer to his bed, in order to show him how damn good it would be to let himself go for once. To listen to his inner desires for once. To not worrying about anything that wasn’t fucking him until V forgot his own damn name. Seriously, was he asking _that _much? Because he certainly doubted he was.

After exhaling a new long sigh V sat up on the sofa and stood up, resigning himself to the idea of spending a new night alone with his imagination. He was already reaching for the buttons of his shirt to unbutton it while climbing the small stairs towards his bedroom when some brusque knocks sounded at the door.

V frowned, approaching the door to look through the peephole.

Nero was standing there, jaw tense and hands on his hips.

The thief gulped, refusing to raise his hopes too soon while opening the door to offer an impatient glance at the officer. 

“Yes, Ner—?”

“I’m gonna fucking regret this.”

V had barely got the meaning of the officer’s snarled, defeated words when Nero stomped inside and his mouth crashed against his, forcing a surprised, relieved groan from him that he didn’t bother to suppress.

Not wanting to risk that Nero suddenly changed his mind V rapidly enclosed his arms around Nero’s neck, kissing him back intensely as Nero’s hands settled around his waist, pressing their bodies together.

It had been a while since he got so hard with so little, and he may have felt a little embarrassed about it if he wasn’t feeling Nero’s own straining erection against his own clothed one.

At that moment Nero kicked back the door of his apartment closed for second time with a lack of delicacy that made V chuckle during the kiss. He broke it then, together with their embrace in order to settle his hands on Nero’s shoulders.

While digging his green stare in the officer, V walked forward to push Nero against the closed door with force. He had time to enjoy the want appearing in Nero’s feverish blue eyes before recapturing his mouth, taking control of the next open-mouthed kiss. When they had to pull back, panting for air and from barely suppressed desire, V peppered kisses and licks along Nero’s strong jaw while grinding forward, feeling Nero’s hardness pulsating against his own.

The officer cursed brokenly when V grabbed his earlobe between his teeth, moment in which he finally replied to Nero’s previous statement against his ear, using a promising, lust-charged tone that caused Nero to shiver in anticipation against him.

“No, Nero. You _won’t_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Confession time: initially I had planned _that_ cliffhanger, then I thought I could fit the sex scene in this same chapter, buuut when I reached the 5k words and they were still in the date I preferred to stick to the initial plan or otherwise the chapter would have surpassed the 10k words ^^U
> 
> Also, in case it has crossed anyone's mind, don't worry because there won't be any interruptions and they will be able to enjoy some quality PWP time in the nex chapter to their fullest :P


	13. No regrets (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A mainly NSFW chapter ahead with some plot at the end: you've been warned :P

“No, Nero. You _won’t_.”

Nero managed not to come when V purred that promising sentence in his ear, but he was about to when the thief brusquely popped his whole shirt open, exposing his whole chest.

“_Shit_”, he exhaled. V’s violent eagerness had taken him by surprise, but damn if he didn’t feel incredibly turned on by it.

Nero kept still while V began to travel down his front. His uneven breathing made his pecs go up and down more laboredly as V’s long fingers and tongue played with the skin on display, arising goosebumps wherever they touched and licked. V’s green stare kept locked with his the whole time and Nero was unable to look away, holding it until the thief eventually fell on his knees in front of him.

V mouthed at his abs then, nipping the taut skin. His hands efficiently zipped his pants opened, lowering his underwear next. Nero had barely time to catch his breath after his erect member sprang free, since V’s lips rapidly enclosed around the tip to begin swallowing him like he had been starved for it.

Nero cursed heatedly, the back of his head connecting against the door due to the spike of pleasure provoked by V’s tongue swirling around his cock. He rapidly tangled his hands in V’s soft locks and tightened his grip on his hair, doing what he couldn’t do the last time the thief gave him oral.

Nero only managed to thrust twice against V’s mouth until his hips were grabbed and pinned with unexpected force against the sturdy door, making it tremble a little.

“Who said that you could move?”

The teasing but commanding component of V’s voice made Nero’s member twitch. With a grunt, Nero forced V to stand up again by gripping the back of his head. He kissed the thief fiercely, hooking then his hands on the back of V’s thighs to raise him up. V’s legs immediately wrapped around his waist, hands securing on his shoulders while Nero walked towards the stairs.

“No one, but you’ll have to tie me up if you wanna make me obey.”

Nero grabbed V’s lower lip between his teeth, enjoying its thickness as V chuckled mischievously.

“Don’t tempt me, officer.”

It was Nero’s turn to shiver when V sank his teeth in his neck, but despite the fact that his last encounters with the Poetic Burglar had made him see handcuffs in a new light, he wasn’t going to let V win. That night, if someone ended being tied, _like hell_ if it was going to be him.

V was impressed when Nero managed to snap the door of his bedroom opened while still carrying him. Their mouths had been locked together the whole time, none of them wanting to pause for air despite the risk of making out while climbing up the stairs in such a precarious manner.

The officer didn’t waste time in dropping him unceremoniously on the bed. V rapidly propped himself up, leaning back on his forearms while shamelessly ogling at Nero as this one put up quite a show in rolling back his shoulders to discard his opened t-shirt. The little smirk of Nero’s face told V the officer was perfectly aware of the effect the private striptease was causing on him, but two could play that game.

Making the most of Nero having to crouch to remove his boots, V started to unbutton his shirt. He didn’t discard it though, leaving it open before lying back on the bed again. From that position he couldn’t see Nero, but he perfectly heard the officer cursing with arousal when he languidly slid his right hand under his trousers, beginning to palm his erection through the underwear. V smirked when Nero cursed again. He unnecessarily arched a little while touching himself, exhaling a provocative groan intended to stir Nero up for being taking too much in joining him.

The teasing worked wonders, since in a matter of seconds Nero was on him again, capturing his mouth with a growl and removing his hand from inside his pants to grind their bodies together instead.

Nero had been too impatient to remove his own trousers, but the half-nude state didn’t look bad on him but quite the opposite. So, V didn’t protest much when Nero pulled back from him to rip his pants off his legs together with his underwear, fumbling a little with his sandals until he was completely naked waist down.

“Careful, officer”, V teased when Nero dropped his clothes on the floor, “they are not cheap and I wouldn’t like to make you pay for their repair—_ngh_”

This time V arched for real when Nero dove down to capture a nipple in his mouth. The thief sighed approvingly when Nero’s teeth enclosed around the bud and bit it while pulling a the other between forefinger and thumb. Soon Nero was mimicking his previous treatment, tracing his patterned tattoos with his tongue until reaching his crotch.

It didn’t take a genius to know which Nero’s next action was going to be, but that didn’t prevent V from clutching at the mattress when the officer placed his hands on the back of his knees, forced his legs opened, and deepthroated him until he could feel Nero’s nose against his skin.

“_Yes_”, V moaned, unconsciously closing his eyes when Nero didn’t waste time in sucking him with a hard pace that had V’s legs buckling. He wasn’t surprised to discover that the blowjobs he had imagined to receive from Nero were quite poor compared to the one he was enjoying. It was evident that the officer had experience in the matter. He didn’t have the least trouble in applying the necessary speed and pressure to each bob to make V tremble.

However, although such knowledge was clearly playing in V’s benefit at the moment, the thief found himself disliking the idea of the officer having done that to someone else than him, which made him grab Nero’s head to thrust inside his mouth a little too roughly, as a punishment that Nero certainly didn’t deserve.

The sudden action forced Nero to stop, probably to avoid gagging. The officer met V’s defiant gaze and liberated one of his legs to reach for the hand that had been hooked on his head, pining it against the mattress.

“Do that again and _I_ will tie you up.”

V’s heart beat faster. Despite the threat lingering in Nero’s voice, the officer’s wanting eyes showed _that _was exactly what Nero wanted him to do. V grinned, jerking his hips against Nero’s throat when this one took him in again, purposely going against the officer’s words.

Nero’s blue eyes glinted again. The officer faked then a serious expression, letting go his member with a last wet pop. Nero straightened his position and reached for the back pocket of his opened jeans, which by then were dangling low enough to completely show his V-shape.

Anticipation flooded through the thief’s veins when seeing the handcuffs Nero was sustaining in his index finger, but the sexy moment was completely broken when the officer made them spin way too fast and mockingly.

“Sorry, but until here the roleplay. I’m not much into that.”

Nero chuckled at the roll of eyes he got from V.

“Such wasted potential”, V resignedly raised his arms to facilitate Nero the task of [handcuffing](https://ak4.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/1025721674/preview/stock-footage-bdsm-sex-toys-romantic-couple-in-bed-the-hands-are-handcuffed-to-the-wrought-headboard-close-up.webm) him to the headboard, “I’m sure you would have more success in your sexual life if you used your weapons better—”

Nero enjoyed interrupting V’s speech by rolling his thumbs on the thief’s chest again, making this one’s expression twist in want as his member curved against his flat stomach. Sucking V off had been quite a turn on itself, and Nero would have liked to make the immobilized thief finish in his mouth if he wasn’t afraid of getting too worked up by doing so.

“I don’t need any tricks to make you shout my name”, Nero cockily said, making V snort softly, as if he was purposely doubting his capacity to achieve that, “do you have...?”

V answered the incomplete question with a lateral movement of his head.

“In the nightstand. First drawer.”

Without stepping down the bed Nero reached to open it, his eyes opening more for a moment when seeing a sexual toy inside there besides the lube and the condoms.

“You’re well prepared”, he muttered, leaving a condom next to them and opening the lube while positioning himself between V’s parted legs again, “do you bring many people here?”

Nero avoided to look at V while lubricating his fingers, but he didn’t have any problem in picturing the thief’s amused face when this one talked.

“Why? Are you jealous?”

Nero glared at V when hearing his lilting question, which only accentuated the thief’s grin. He tried to remove that expression from V’s face by beginning to press two fingers inside, slowly but without warning, but far from being caught off guard V simply rocked back his hips, as if he wasn’t bothered at all with the intrusion.

“Just if the answer is yes”, Nero snapped, even if he was having difficulties not to groan for how easily V was taking his three fingers in, making evident the thief had made use of that toy recently. Had V thought about him while doing so? Nero hoped he had. He didn’t want to be the only one in jerking off while thinking about V.

“You can be at ease then”, V hummed softly when Nero curled his fingers, the thief’s stuttered next words telling Nero he had found the best angle, “you’re the first one in stepping in my apartment.”

Nero stopped, his mouth ending half-opened when hearing the answer. V threw an annoyed look at him that he ignored, since he was focused on the unexpected relief that invaded him at the realization that he was important enough to V to be invited to his home, despite the risk it supposed for the thief.

Just when V was opening his mouth to express his impatience Nero dove down to capture V’s lips again in a deep kiss while continuing preparing him. In less than a minute it was evident that V was more than ready for him, so Nero tore the condom open, covered his member with it, and without wasting a damn second longer he forced V’s legs open again in order to begin sinking into him.

“Yes. _Finally_.”

V’s relieved, _needy _exhale made Nero’s fingers dig on the back of V’s knees while continuing until he was balls deep within the thief, making this one whimper again. He moved with precaution at first, testing the waters, but when not catching the least sign of discomfort in V’s expression he didn’t hesitate in quickly building up a rhythm. He settled his hands on V’s hips, obtaining more leverage to impale the thief on his cock at the same time that he pushed in.

Shit, he had never been a particular fan of tying his partners, being women or men, but he had to admit that restraints looked good on V. _Too _good. V’s tense arms made evident the thief was fighting against the handcuffs to touch Nero, which made this one feel a wave of satisfaction.

“Fuck…_ngh_...damn, V.._.so sexy_...”

An opened smile escaped V when hearing Nero. He forced his eyes opened to admire the sight the officer presented: his half-dressed and messed state, jaw clenched while letting out incoherent compliments, muscles tense for the effort of dragging his entire weight against him, marks of his teeth adorning his slightly sweated skin.

“Look who’s talking”, V raggedly said, grabbing the headboard to better reciprocate Nero’s thrusts, which now were hitting the perfect angle, “losing control looks good on you, officer..._ah_... and it feels _even _better.”

His rasped, blissed words made Nero curse and roughen the pace. V struggled against the handcuffs when Nero’s hands took turns to roam through his front, alternating between pinching his chest and stroking his member, increasing his need of paying the officer back in the same way. V was sure the handcuffs would leave marks on his wrists, but at the moment he couldn’t care less about such an irrelevant fact. At that moment, he couldn't think about anything that wasn’t Nero blowing his mind with every rough, well aimed trust at his prostate that made his body spasm in delight. Definitely Nero's cock felt better than his toy. _So much_ better.

However, when at some point Nero began to moan his ‘name’ more frequently, V discovered it wasn’t enough. For the first time since he was forced to use an alias to conceal his identity, the spell of that letter wasn’t enough, not even with Nero groaning it in such a sexy, ragged voice.

Setting himself free on his own when Nero was pounding into him like that was not an easy task, but V had spent years practicing with that kind of devices to know all the tricks to set himself free. In his current situation, he simply had to change the angle of his tied hands a little so that the force of Nero’s slams reverberated on the handcuffs’ weakest spot.

A dozen of rapid thrusts were enough so that the device broke with a metallic sound. V waited until the next time Nero pushed in to rapidly grab his arms, the officer’s stupor when realizing he wasn’t tied anymore allowing him to switch their position easily.

Nero managed to keep being inside of him with V mounting him. The thief finally discarded his opened shirt at that moment while Nero looked at his liberated wrists with stupor.

“But when—How did you manage to—?”

“Vitale.”

V’s heart hammered against his chest when Nero’s eyes opened in confusion, aware that now there was no turning back.

“What?”, Nero muttered, still without understanding. V settled both hands on Nero’s pectorals while starting to move up and down then, dragging a surprised sound from the officer at the sudden resume of their fucking.

“My name is Vitale_. Say it._”

Nero met V’s intense gaze, realizing that what was happening was important. That V had decided to trust him enough to reveal something about himself he didn’t use to share.

“Vitale.”

After he spoke, V... _Vitale_ moaned again while increasing the speed of his up-and-down movements, clenching around Nero and making him whine while grabbing his thighs with force.

“Again..._ah_...say it again, Nero.”

Nero did from then on, causing V to shiver and moan through half-parted lips every time, riding him with renewed vigor until Nero decided to take the reins again instead of simply watching V going wild over him, as arousing as the vision was.

He sat up with a brusque motion and enclosed both arms around V’s body, his left hand grabbing V’s ass as the other tangled on the back of the man’s hair to force his mouth against his. V enclosed his arms around his shoulders, purposely moaning against his ear from then on to stir him up until Nero was viciously pounding up inside V once again, dragging the thief down at the same time that he fucked into him.

V chuckled in ecstasy, letting his head fall back with his eyes closed and his lower lip grabbed between his teeth, visibly enjoying the control the new position gave him. Broken ‘_Yes_’ and ‘_Oh_’s abandoned the thief’s lips non-stop, voicing aloud his pleasure as Nero focused his thrusts on that spot that provoked V’s nails to dig on his shoulder blades.

Not wanting to stop feeling V’s nails marking his skin, Nero reached down between their bodies to finish V off when feeling himself getting close. He managed to push V towards his orgasm first, but the way the thief hissed his name against the side of his face was the point of no return for him. Nero exploded inside V mere seconds later, whispering that name unknown to him until then.

Part of the thief’s dark hair had ended stuck to his face after the passionate ride, so V pushed it back with a breathless chuckle before capturing his mouth. Nero’s hands found anchor on V’s hips while returning the kiss, that turned slower and more intimate as seconds passed by.

When their need of breath imposed over their wish of keeping kissing, Nero exhaled a curse and dropped back against the bed, dragging V with him. The thief remained on the top of him, with his face resting against on the crook of his neck, the position allowing Nero to feel the man’s nose gently pressing under his jaw.

“So?”, V panted during the afterglow with a sated tone, lazily sliding next to him on the bed after Nero pulled out from him, “do you regret it?”

Nero let out a long sigh, the action of finally removing his pants after tying the used condom requiring an inhuman effort at the moment.

“Ask me tomorrow. Right now I cannot even think.”

His post-orgasmic murmur made V chuckle with exhaustion, the amused ‘_Alright_’ muttered by the thief being the last thing Nero registered before falling asleep next to V.

* * *

When the alarm clock sounded at 7:00 a.m. the next day, V froze for a moment when he felt someone moving behind him, not recalling immediately what had happened. Nero cursing at that moment was all the remainder he needed though, so after turning his alarm off V turned towards the officer, finding this one leaning over the edge bed to recover his ringing mobile from his discarded pants.

“Who is calling you?”, V inquired, rubbing his eyes with the palm on his hand.

“No one, it’s just my alarm”, the officer lay back against the pillows again and yawned loudly, fixing his eyes on V next.

The silence that followed their brief dialogue was extremely awkward, as if neither of them knew how to react after their passionate encounter from the previous night.

“So... uhm…”, Nero tried, not very cleverly, “I think I should go. Not to be late to work and all that.”

V nodded.

“Yes, same here.”

A new silence fell, as awkward as the previous one if not more, and V was beginning to think that perhaps Nero hadn’t been that wrong when saying that sleeping together would be a mistake when suddenly Nero began to lean forward towards him, the intention of kissing him clear.

The gesture was hesitant, as if Nero wasn’t sure how V was going to answer, but the initiative was all V needed to relax and respond by joining his lips with Nero in what V realized it was his first morning kiss.

V smiled to himself when an obviously relieved Nero separated to get dressed, thinking it was funny how such an apparent trivial gesture was enough to mark the difference. It wasn’t the first time he watched someone dressing in a hurry after leaving his bed, but it was the first time he was already looking forward to the next encounter.

“Do you know what bus I should take?”, Nero inquired while buttoning his shirt, interrupting V’s thoughts, “and no, I don’t want you to take me there, thank you very much.”

V chuckled and sat on the mattress, the sheets still covering his lower half when he leaned his elbows on his flexed knees.

“Probably the subway is a better option. There is a stop five minutes from here that will leave you pretty close to the police department, and you’d probably prefer to grab something there than visiting the cafes around.”

“Let me guess: they’re expensive as fuck.”

“It depends: do you think 5$ for a coffee is expensive?”

“_What?_”

“Exactly what I thought.”

V chuckled again when Nero kept muttering curses to himself while crouching down to put his shoes again, as if he was personally offended by those prices.

“Alright”, Nero said once he was ready to go, palming his pockets to check he had his wallet and mobile, “I think I have everything?”

V smirked with amusement.

“Are you sure?”

Nero frowned, blushing faintly when V shook his wrists with a playful smile, making the broken handcuffs still hanging from them sound.

“Sorry”, Nero extracted the key from one of his pockets and approached the bed to remove them, surprising V by grabbing his wrists in his hands to rub his thumbs over the mark carefully, “does it hurt?”

V shook his head reassuringly.

“I’ve had it worse”, his reply made Nero half-close his eyes, unamused and in tension, which made V smile while placing his hand on the back of Nero’s neck, encouraging him to bend down, “relax: it was nothing I didn’t want.”

Nero grunted during the following kiss, still not very convinced but visibly more relaxed.

V was about to tease Nero a little more, finding extremely cute that the officer was so worried about the improbable perspective of someone hurting him, when he suddenly heard the door of his apartment open and close, followed by loud, rapid steps.

“_V~_!! I reaaally hope you’re awake because goddess: watching all those episodes of crafting has given me the best idea EVER for our next jo—”

By when V could react to what was happening, the door of his bedroom had snapped opened and Nico had stomped inside.

Certainly, V didn’t know who looked more shocked among the three, though probably Nico beat them, with the way she gasped loudly before looking at him with an expression that was half ‘_Oh-shit-oh-shit_’ and half ‘_WHAT-THE-HELL-DUDE?!_’.

V knew Nico would surely kill him in a matter of minutes, but for the time being he would try to save himself and Nico from ending in jail, since he didn’t like one bit the inquisitive glance Nero was throwing at Nico.

“Nero, this is Jill. She usually helps us with the assembly of exhibitions”, he rapidly made up, taking note of it so that Nico played her magic to create herself that identity later, “And Jill, this is Nero. The guy I’ve talked you about.”

Nero was the one who first reacted by offering Nico his right hand.

“Nice to meet you, Jill”, Nero half-closed his eyes while Nico shook his hand, still in shock, “haven’t we met already?”

“Nope”, Nico’s answer was too fast and definitive, and she seemed to realize because she laughed nervously, “I-I mean, I haven’t been in the gallery in a while and I have never been arrested. Not in the Red Grave at least. I-I mean, not in Red Grave and neither in any other city: the fact that I have a bunch of tattoos doesn’t mean I’m a criminal, you know?”

After trying and failing to think about a way to make Nico shut up before her nervousness got them in trouble, V decided it was wiser to address Nero.

“Not that I want you out of here, Nero, but perhaps you should be going. The subway is pretty crowded at this hour and I doubt you want to be late.”

The mention of the time effectively made Nero break eye contact with Nico to look at him instead.

“Yeah, you’re probably right”, after a moment of hesitation, Nero nodded towards him, probably considering awkward to kiss him goodbye when Nico was standing right there.

V answered in the same way, and frowned when Nero stopped in the door frame to look at him with a small smile.

“And about last night question, I don’t.”

It took V a moment to understand what Nero meant, and by when he did, the officer was gone already. He didn’t have time to feel happy about it though, since the moment the door of the apartment closed again, Nico turned towards him brusquely, pointing at him with his finger rather dramatically.

“_YOU—_”

V rapidly approached his index finger to his mouth, managing to shut his hysteric friend while stepping out the bed to check the window. He verified that Nero was in fact going towards the subway and that wasn’t eavesdropping before turning towards Nico, crossing his arms while leaning against the wall next to the window.

“Alright. You can proceed.”

“ARE YOU FUCKING NUTS?”

“I guess it’s a rhetorical question.”

“OF COURSE it’s rhetorical!! What the hell was Nero doing here?!”

“Well—”

“_THAT’s also rhetorical!_ I perfectly know what he was doing but shit, man, you should have told me!! I almost screwed it up there _really_ badly.”

V exhaled a long sigh, approaching his wardrobe to reach for his robe because one thing was that Nico had seen him naked already, and another to continue that conversation with him in that nude state.

“You are right, and I’m sorry”, he admitted once he was decent again, sitting on his bed facing Nico but keeping his eyes on the carpeted floor, “I guess I was afraid of you dissuading me from doing something stupid.”

Nico huffed with patience, approaching the bed to drop next to him.

“Well, _at least_ you know you did something stupid”, after a small silence Nico elbowed him, her tone acquiring her usually playfulness, “was it worth it?”

V couldn’t prevent a smirk from forming in his face while turning to look at Nico. It was incredible how she passed from being angry to normal again. It was an ability V would always admire and would never understand.

“Oh, absolutely.”

His impassioned answered made Nico laugh while leaving the bag she had been carrying on the floor between her legs.

“Lucky you. You were pining after that ass for so long that it would be a pity to be left unsatisfied”, Nico looked at him with curiosity, “by the way, was he kissing you goodbye when I entered?”

V shifted in his seat, trying to rest importance to the answer.

“He was kissing me. Period”, he looked at Nico suspiciously when seeing her goofy smile, “what?”

“Nothing. Just that I wasn’t expecting you ended being that serious about this cop.”

V was about to deny such a claim, but Nico’s raised eyebrows convinced him he couldn’t fool the woman. Not at that point.

“Me neither”, he eventually confessed, and it was the truth. At first, he only planned to have fun by playing around a little with Nero, finding amusing how the young officer got so easily pumped up. But while spending time with Nero, first as the Poetic Burglar, then as Mr. Vail and, ultimately, as Vitale, he couldn’t deny that Nero had become more important that he could have ever expected. And what happened the previous night, with him revealing his true name to Nero, was a big hint about how he felt towards the cop, even if it still cost him to wrap his mind about it, and even more to express it aloud.

“Hey, V”, he focused again on Nico when hearing her cautious tone, “you sure about tonight? I mean, I know I got all hysterical the other day when thinking you wanted to abandon, but if you are serious about this sexy cop and want to rethink things—”

V interrupted Nico by grabbing her chin softly and depositing a kiss on her cheek.

“I may be serious about ‘this sexy cop’, but you are my partner”, V smiled when seeing Nico was in fact blushing, “and I met you first, so I’m not going to leave you in the lurch after all your hard work.”

Nico stared at him and exhaled a loud snort that sounded quite happy and relieved.

“Jeez, no doubt that officer fell for you, you smooth talker”, she looked at him suspiciously while signaling at her cheek with her finger, “but I hope you have washed your mouth before kissing me, because goddess knows where it has been.”

“Well—”

“_Don’t you dare_.”

“Alright, but perhaps you should avoid sitting in the bed since the sheets aren’t changed.”

V couldn’t help to laugh when his comment caused Nico to stand up abruptly with a curse, announcing she would be waiting ‘his pervy ass’ in the living room.

By when he joined her downstairs, already showered and dressed, she had already prepared her new identity just in case Nero decided to investigate, so they could get to work immediately on that night job.

A job that V planned to carry out with extreme care and without the less incident, because now he had a solid reason to stay in Red Grave, and the perspective of leaving was something he wanted to avoid at any cost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, no more interruptions this time so that the guys could finally release all that pent-up tension :DD
> 
> Also, as some of you have been fearing, everything was going too well up till now for the pair, so things will get a little interesting from now on he he he.


	14. Game over

Nero spent the trip to the police department trying to remember where he had seen that woman V had introduced as Jill.

He was still lost in his thoughts when he entered the police department. The pronounced frown he was displaying while squeezing his brain caused the newbies who passed him to step away, probably thinking he was in a bad mood. Eventually, as frustrating as it was, Nero gave up for the time being, hoping that the identity of that woman naturally came to him.

He was about to enter the main office but at the last moment he changed his mind, preferring to make a quick stop in the lockers. He hadn’t had time to stop by his apartment and surely his uncle and Lady would comment something about his clothes if he appeared dressed ‘so formally’.

Inside the changing rooms he took a moment to check that he was alone before removing his denim shirt, wanting to avoid any possible comments about the nail marks adorning his shoulders and the teeth marks covering his front. He rapidly dressed with the change of clothes he kept there and looked at himself in the small mirror hanging inside his locker’s door. Once he also verified that there weren't any visible hickeys on his neck he finally went to the main office.

He was surprised when seeing Dante already there, sitting at his desk while giving his back to him.

“Wow, you’re here already, old man?” Nero kept talking teasingly while circling the table to face his uncle. “Was the date so good that you didn’t return ho—ly _shit_!”

His mouth snapped open when seeing Dante’s left black eye. The detective exhaled a long sigh and signaled at his face with a wide movement of his hand.

“Well, I guess it could’ve gone better.”

After some seconds Nero finally recovered from his stupor. He didn’t need to ask how Dante had got that bruise. He knew how scary Trish could be despite her calm appearance, but for her to actually punch Dante like that...Shit, the man had needed to fuck it up _really _badly.

“Okay”. Nero dragged his chair sit closer to his uncle and talked in a lower tone. “What the hell did you do?”

This time Dante didn’t even protest for being fairly accused, proceeding to talk with a light awkward tone that already announced he had done something _really _stupid.

“Actually, everything started rather well. When she passed by my desk it was rather late and everyone was gone, so it was just the two of us. She said she still needed to finish some things, but that we could order something. We ordered Chinese, talked like the good all times while eating, flirted like the _great _old times during and after it, and well...”

Dante signaled briefly a rather hidden hickey under his jaw, causing Nero’s eyes to open more.

“Wait, so you two—"

Dante sighed with annoyance.

“No, we were about to when I had the brilliant idea to open my drawer to recover...well, _things_.”

“Dante, I know you keep lube and condoms there. And Lady knows it too.”

“_What_? So that’s why I always run out of—” Dante shut up when more people entered the room, waiting for them to pass before continuing talking, “anyway, the thing is that I opened the drawer but forgot there was something else there.”

Nero half-closed his eyes, not sure if he wanted to hear the answer.

“And that something was…?”

“...a violet bra.”

“_What_?”

“From Nevan.”

“_WHAT_?!”

“Sssh, lower your voice, kid!”

“But what the fuck, Dante, what the hell was_ that thing _doing there?”

“Well, do you remember that night when I thought that Trish was dating someone?”

“Yeah, my father took me home and you went drinking after—” Nero’s eyes opened wide. “_No_.”

“The thing is that I ended a little drunk that night. A little _too _drunk.”

“_NO._”

“And I don’t know how, but I ended in Nevan’s apartment and well...”

“Fuck, _Dante_.”

“I know, I know, whatever you’re gonna tell me I’ve already said it to me, kid, believe me. So, long story short, I woke up in Nevan’s bed the next morning with a gigantic hangover, and while grabbing my things that bra somehow ended in the pocket of my jacket. By when I realized I was already in the office so I stuffed it in the drawer, waiting for the right moment to throw it away.” Dante leaned his head in his hands and exhaled a humorless laugh. “And then I completely forgot about it.”

Nero cursed, reclining back on his chair. They remained in silence for some seconds before he placed a hand on Dante's shoulder.

“Look, if you want, I can try to talk to Trish and—”

“No, Nero, let it be.” Dante exhaled a short sigh and looked at him with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I appreciate it, but it’s my turn to figure this out.”

Dante’s uncharacteristic firm tone and the fact he had called him by his name told Nero that there was nothing else he could do. He was about to insist nevertheless, since giving up easily wasn’t something that suited the Sparda Family, when Dante talked again with a teasing tone.

“And what about _your _date? Was it good?”

Nero knew it would be better to deny such a date had happened in the first place, but Dante’s question made him think about it: the dinner in the restaurant, the illegal but worth it walk through the park, and then what happened in V’s apartment. Inevitably, his mind was invaded with images of V handcuffed and spread on the bed, arching and bucking against him while groaning his name in that velvety voice of his. A contented sigh almost escaped him when recalling how easily V had taken control again, inverting his positions to give him a ride that would be difficult to forget.

Definitely he was glad for not having allowed his doubts to win, or for sure he would have missed a damn night to remember.

“_That_ good? Shit, now I’m jealous.”

Nero woke up from his fantasies when hearing Dante’s snarky comment. He snorted and punched the man’s shoulder before coming back to his desk while Dante laughed quietly, feeling his ears burning a little.

“Oh, speaking about your thief...” Dante reached for a folder on his desk and threw it on his desk without moving from his chair. “These are the testimonies of the people who attended the auction. As we feared we got nothing too relevant, but maybe you want to take a look at it.”

Nero stopped when he was about to open the report, the answer that had been escaping him up till then finally clicking in his mind.

“Kid?” Dante said with confusion when a curse escaped him.

“Were there any cameras in the auction?”

His sudden question made Dante blink before answering.

“Yeah, but we checked them already and we didn’t find anything. Not to mention that the ones who could have recorded The Poetic Burglar turned off all of sudden. Why?”

“Do you remember those two women who fought over the book that was stolen? I think the ‘pregnant’ one is V’s accomplice.”

Dante’s eyes opened more.

“O - kay” Dante frowned, curiosity appearing in his gaze. “And how can you be so sure about that?”

Nero hesitated for a moment before talking.

“Because I saw her with V once,” he eventually said, preferring not to give more details. “He called her ‘Jill’ but I guess it’s a fake name. He also said she works in the gallery, which is probably a lie too.”

Dante nodded and stood up.

“Very well. Then I’ll check those videos again to see if we can find something about that woman. Maybe we’re luckier than with Mr. Vail and a real name pops up.” Dante patted his back and winked at him. “Good job, kid.”

When his uncle walked away, Nero felt a small strike of guilt assaulting him for having shared something that he had discovered when V and him were ‘on a rest’. However, he eventually pushed the feeling away. After all, it wasn’t as if he had used V in order to get that information. He had simply made the most of that woman’s mistake for appearing when she shouldn’t, so it had been fair play.

Determined not to worry more about the matter he turned his computer on to finally finish the damn questionnaire of the mandatory course they attended. He had barely entered the platform, cursing when he failed to introduce his password twice, when what Dante had just said about not knowing much about V came to him.

Against his will, he couldn’t help to think back about all the information the thief had revealed about himself during the date. He exhaled a long sigh, hesitated for almost a minute, and then decided to sign out the course platform to investigate V a little. Again, it wasn’t as if he planned to use that information to catch V. It would be a low move he’d never use. But the temptation of using the resources he had at hand to know more about V, whose real name seemed to be Vitale, was too big to let it pass.

Truth to be told, Nero did it with zero expectations, assuming he wouldn’t find much, so he was extremely surprised (and also proud of himself) when he was mistaken.

It wasn’t easy though. It took him almost four hours to find something useful, since V hadn’t been especially precise about the years he had spent doing those ‘occasional jobs’ he had mentioned. However, he had been surprisingly sincere in certain parts of his explanation, which eventually led Nero to find not only the orphanage where he had been raised with almost a 100% of accuracy, but also several old cases in which V could have been involved before he started his career as The Poetic Burglar.

Nero decided to stop the search right there, thinking he had found more than enough. He opened his personal and almost full notebook to write the cases associated with the news he had gathered, with the intention of taking a look at them later.

So focused he was in the process that he didn’t feel the person behind him until it was too late.

“This is...curious.”

Nero felt his heart about to leave his mouth when hearing Vergil’s voice so close. He turned around rapidly, avoiding to gulp when seeing his father standing there, his gaze fixed on the screen with an unreadable expression before looking at him from above.

“Are you investigating The Poetic Burglar?” The stupor must have showed in his face because Vergil continued with a tone that indicated such a deduction had been obvious. “It has been a while since I last saw you so invested while working on something.”

Nero pushed aside for a moment the discovery that his father paid more attention to his work for the sake of answering with a nod.

“Yeah, I’m on that. But I still have to investigate some more. For now I only have leads but nothing definite.”

Vergil nodded, not betraying at all what he was thinking, as usual.

“Nevertheless, I’m sure it’s not necessary to remind you to share your findings when you finish, including the details that may look trivial.”

Nero sustained his father’s gaze, understanding that the man was ‘subtly’ warning him about the not pleasant consequences of keeping information to himself.

“Of course,” he said with the sincerest tone he managed, even if he still planned to keep some things unsaid.

Nero suppressed a relieved sigh when Vergil nodded, apparently satisfied.

“Keep the good work, officer,” Vergil surprised him by saying when passing next to him. “And keep me also informed about what you discover about that alleged accomplice.”

Nero wasn’t surprised that his father already knew about it, since it was well known in the department that the Demon Chief had ears everywhere.

He waited until his father disappeared inside his office and that the usual ruckus came back to turn his computer off and stand up in the direction of the archive. He had barely taken a couple of steps towards it when, this time, he _did _feel someone else approaching. He turned around in time to catch Lady’s wrist before this one could slap his nape playfully.

“Jeez, it was funnier when you were slower!”

Nero snorted with a cocky smile when Lady pouted.

“Sorry: your age had to eventually show.” He also avoided the shin kick the woman was going to throw at him before talking with curiosity. “You’re super late. Did you oversleep or what?”

Lady huffed, leaving his backpack on her desk loudly.

“I wish, but nope: your daddy asked me to do some gathering.”

“Gathering? About what?”

Lady heavily dropped on her chair and reached for the other bag she was carrying to extract a gigantic sandwich, which she proceeded to eat it despite Vergil’s prohibition of doing so in the main office.

“About that list of items that the Poetic Burglar could be interested in stealing,” Nero managed to understand what she was saying despite the fact that she was talking with her mouth full, “he wanted me to take note of which of them will remain in the city during this month, in order to add more vigilance to them or simply confiscate them.” Lady took an even bigger bite and Nero half-closed his eyes to focus on understanding the next words. “After all it’s the first time he acts twice in the same place, so maybe he plans to do it a third.”

Lady’s confusing words made Nero’s mind click again, since when stomping inside the room V’s accomplice had in fact said something about a ‘next job’.

And then, something that V said at the beginning of the week came to him.

“_Friday is a little complicated day for me, since I have an unavoidable commitment._”

Nero gulped. Could it be that V was _that _crazy?

It didn’t take him even one second to answer himself affirmatively.

“Damn it.”

The curse escaped him by accident, causing Lady to stop when she was about to take a new bite of his food.

“What?”

Nero gulped, hesitating for the third time that day. Should he tell Lady and the others about his hunch? But it was only that: a hunch. He hadn’t anything solid to prove his theory, or to justify it. ‘_Not that such a thing had stopped you before_’, a little voice told him.

“You know when he’s going to act.”

His heart skipped a beat when Lady took the decision for him, which made him remember that despite her disorganization and ‘flexibility to follow the rules’ (her words, not his), she was a detective for a reason.

He exhaled a sigh and scratched the back of his head, getting close to her before speaking so that only she heard him.

“I think he may act tonight.”

Lady dropped the sandwich on her desk, the sauce the sandwich carried causing quite a mess on it.

“What?! So soon? Jeez, your boo is really a mad lad.”

Nero snorted softly.

“Yeah, tell me about it, ”he said ironically, leaning against Lady’s desk with his arms crossed. “But I have no idea what he’s planning to steal, so probably we should check that list first before telling the others.”

Lady observed him in silence.

“So, you are really going to tell your papa?”

“Well, I _have _to. This morning he left clear that I need to share everything even if it’s circumstantial.”

“Yes, but I mean...do you want to do it?”

Nero was surprised when hearing Lady sound so serious, and also a little concerned for him.

It was obvious that she was worried about his relationship with V getting in the way, but there was something that hadn’t changed one bit, not even after sleeping together: he wanted to prove V he could be better than him, and this was the perfect opportunity to show it, so he wasn’t going to waste it.

“If I want what? To finally catch the bastard who doesn’t stop mocking us with poems? Of course I do.” Lady’s face didn’t look very convinced, so Nero insisted, “and yeah, I may not like the idea of him going to jail very much, but he..._we_ both knew this could happen at the end. And since he _never _goes easy on me, I have to pay him with the same coin.”

Lady observed Nero in stupor before exhaling an incredulous laugh.

“Damn, you two are the weirdest pair I’ve ever seen.” Nero knew what topic Lady was going to bring just for the way her eyes glinted. “At least, I hope you have made the most of the thief-and-cop dynamics in bed, given that maybe we catch him today.”

Nero rolled his eyes and approached his chair to Lady’s as this one chuckled mockingly.

“Come on: we have work to do,” and then, he added with a casual tone. “And don’t worry, we have.”

Nero took great pleasure in the dumbfounded face Lady made, and also in ignoring her pleas so that he gave her more details about those ‘dynamics’. At least, the fact that they had to examine a rather big list in a rather short period of time made the woman give up in her interrogation ‘for the time being’.

It took them almost three hours to examine all the items, but the information Lady had got that morning together with the extra knowledge Nero had gained the previous night about V’s likings allowed them to limit the number of possible items to steal from one-hundred and fifteen to three. Which, modesty aside, wasn’t bad at all.

“Okay, time to speak to your daddy then.” Lady surprised him with a long sigh. “Damn, I will miss being your superior, you know?”

Nero blinked, confused.

“What?”

Lady, who had been about to walk to Vergil’s officer, exhaled an incredulous laugh.

“What’s with that surprised face? For sure catching the Poetic Burglar will make you be instantly promoted, so move your silly ass already, future Detective!”

It only took Nero a couple of seconds to follow Lady, and the rest of the pretty intense afternoon to assimilate that maybe by the next day he would be already a detective after having caught the most famous thief of that decade. And since he had decided to trust V’s security of not existing a prison good enough to keep him locked for long, he couldn’t help to feel extremely thrilled for what could happen that night.

* * *

“So, are you nervous?”

V offered a confident look at Nico from the back of the van where he was finishing changing with his ‘work’ clothes.

“Why should I? It’s far from being my first time.”

Nico offered him a look through the rearview mirror.

“Yeah, but not every day you get a hold on our friend Willy’s original [notebook](https://66.media.tumblr.com/82fe45eb50ffcaffb24fd01aa1545ed2/tumblr_po385xUsEi1rlvfbgo1_500.png).” She cleared her throat. “And you know I don’t like to boast...”

“Yes, you do.”

“...but I was a damn genius for finding it, so we should go sixty-forty this time in case you eventually decide to sell it.”

V chuckled softly and shook his head while finishing zipping his hooded jacket.

“I’m really sorry, Nico, but I’m not letting that diary go.”

The woman exhaled a fake, disappointed sigh.

“Can’t blame me for trying.” Making the most of a red-light Nico lit a cigarette and took a drag from it. “Damn, this month has been tough. I’m gonna do literally nothing for the next one.”

V knew Nico would be unable to remain still more than two days in a row, but she had a point. Preparing not one but two thefts had been something they had never dared to do before, and it had been even more extenuating they had predicted. Probably the wisest idea would have been to stick to the original plan of simply stealing the notebook.

However, when V learned that ‘_The First Book of Urizen_’ was going to be in the auction they were planning to attend, he couldn’t resist the temptation. Besides, there wasn’t a better way to prove everyone that The Poetic Burglar didn’t need to kill to succeed than carrying out a theft with so many people around. Nico had agreed with him on that and everything had ended with flying colors, so the exhaustion of the month promised to be quite worth it.

“Okay, we are into position.” As usual, Nico parked the van in an alley situated a couple of streets away from the skyscraper V was going to climb thanks to Nico’s new toys. “Gimme a moment to check everything is clear.”

Nico stepped down the driver seat and trotted towards her workspace where her laptop was. V checked that he had everything he needed inside his backpack while she typed on her computer with her usual speed while humming to herself.

“Oki doki, the street is clear: just the usual troublemakers wanting to party hard.”

“Well, we can always join them when we finish,” he teased, knowing how much Nico hated when he ‘jinxed’ them by assuming everything was going to be okay.

The hacker punished him by blowing smoke to her face, making him wrinkle his nose before approaching the van’s door after she gave him green light.

“And you better not break any of my toys,” she warned when he opened the door, threateningly pointing at him with her cigar. “Adapting that [mini crossbow](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71TNDQJQYbL._AC_SL1200_.jpg) wasn’t easy _nor _cheap.”

“Duly noted.” V adjusted his mask and nodded towards Nico with a smile before finally stepping down the street.

He had only taken a couple of steps when Nico’s voice sounded in his ear.

“_And if your sexy cop appears you better not waste time fooling around, understood?_”

V chuckled while looking up, searching for the best spot to shoot the wire.

“Relax, I won’t. Last night left me satisfied enough to endure another week at least.”

“_Yeah, by basing on all those marks I can perfectly imagine it._”

“I knew deep inside you were a pervert.”

“_Hey_, _I said I **can**, not that I do it, you idiot!_”

The teasing continued until V finally reached the skyscraper where the multimillionaire they were going to rob lived, by making use of both the modified crossbow and the wing-jacket. Once V was stepping on the roof of the closest building, he extracted from his bag a modified mobile that Nico had also programmed to pinpoint the exact apartment he had to reach. It took V some moments to find the exact point. When he did it, the band on his wrist vibrated softly, indicating now the meters it remained until reaching his objective.

“Do you want me to take some nice pictures from above?” V commented teasingly while shooting the crossbow again, smiling when he heard Nico suffering a shiver at the other side.

_“No, thank you_. _And I’ll never understand how you can enjoy doing that._”

Despite Nico’s negative he still recorded his ascension as the wire slowly transported him up, and not just to tease her later about it. The wire wasn’t long enough to do the ascent in one go, so he had to make some stops in different terraces until reaching the [one](https://thumbor.forbes.com/thumbor/960x0/https%3A%2F%2Fblogs-images.forbes.com%2Fhannahleung%2Ffiles%2F2018%2F02%2FThe-Morgan-Penthouse_Terrace_Night-1200x801.jpg) he was looking for. He stuck to the wall closest to the window. The living room inside was completely dark, but before approaching the glassed crystal he used his mobile again to scan it, so that Nico could detect if he could activate any alarms by touching it.

“_Clean. Jeez, why don’t people install more alarms in terraces? It’s obvious the thieves aren’t going to enter through the main door._”

While Nico kept talking to herself about the stupidity of the (rich) people, V extracted the small spray they had carefully prepared that morning and used it on the area next to the knob at the other side. The crystal affected began to melt as if it was water, allowing V to introduce his gloved hand through the hole in order to safely open the door.

Before stepping inside, V scanned the room again. This time Nico had to play her magic to deactivate the alarm system. He had to wait around half-a-minute until she announced a proud ‘_Done_’. V clicked his tongue in disapproval when noticing there wasn’t a single bookshelf in the living room, proving that the owner had acquired the diary only due to its monetary value.

“Perhaps I take more than one souvenir from this fool,” V commented while approaching the door of the office.

“_Then you should_ _check his bedroom. I’ve heard his wife likes expensive jewelry._”

“I didn’t know you were into that now.” V crouched in front of the door and started to force the lock open. “Don’t tell me your feminine side has been finally awakened.”

“_Uhm, hello? You wear more jewels than me, dude, and sorry to tell you but that doesn’t make you a lady._”

V chuckled softly at Nico’s comment. He only needed some seconds to open the door with the familiar, satisfying ‘click’.

“In any case, do you have any particular preference about what kind of ornaments should I pick after—?”

V’s words died on his throat when the door was finally opened, revealing a luxurious [office](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8c/d6/a8/8cd6a8b9c5db703811c170c8f6b8ff7c.jpg) that he could barely appreciate, since his eyes automatically landed in the two motionless figures lying on the floor.

His brain was finally catching to what his eyes were seeing when another familiar but way more disagreeable sound joined Nico’s confused questions: the sound of a weapon’s safety being unlocked.

“Ahh, an intruder perhaps?”

For the first time in a really long time, V wasn’t fast enough to reach for the tranquilizer weapon hanging on his pants before the owner of that mischievous, feminine voice situated behind him in order to press the barrel of the gun against his temple.

“Careful, boy. If you don’t want to join the gentlemen on the floor, I recommend you to raise your hands.”

V clenched his jaw when feeling the tip of a tongue teasing the shell of his ear. If the circumstances were different, she would try to headbutt that lady to try to gain the upper hand. However, the bodies on the floor and the woman’s speed made him choose prudency. After exhaling a resigned sigh, he obeyed the woman’s petition, causing this one to let out a satisfied laugh that sounded like nails scratching on crystal.

“Good boy,” she whispered against his ear before pushing him forward inside the room until he was standing in the middle. “And now please, turn around.”

He did so. An intense white light was pointed directly at his face, forcing him to close his eyes for a moment. The brusque change of visibility made it impossible for him to distinguish the face of the woman who had him at gunpoint, but he could deduce she was quite tall, around 1.85m, and also lean to the point of being almost preoccupying.

“So finally, the worldly famous Poetic Burglar deigns to arrive,” the woman said, adding a disdained emphasis to the adjective that didn’t go unnoticed by V. “I’m a little disappointed: with your reputation I was expecting it took you less to break into this place.”

“_V. V, what the fuck is going on?! And who is that bitch?!_”

“Well, using the words of a friend, I do not particularly like to boast.” Despite the situation he was in, V showed his best arrogant smirk, “but at the very least, you know who I am, which is something I cannot say in return.”

His words made the woman laugh quietly, but her tone sounded rather irritated when talking next.

“That’s the main problem in this line of work: you take a small recess and when you less expect it a kid decides to steal your spotlight.” By then V’s eyes had got used to the light of the lantern, which allowed him to see the woman’s pale face displaying a disturbing smile. “You can call us Malphas.”

The name did in fact rang a bell, and for the shocked gasp Nico exhaled it seemed it was the same way for her.

“_Malphas?_ _THAT Malphas? Damn, she is considered one of the most wanted thieves of all times. Or, well, she _was: _she has been inactive for almost 10 years so everyone in the business thought she was dead. Oh shit, and rumors say her list of murders is bigger than her robberies, so don’t play with her, V. That hag is dangerous_—_”_

“My deepest apologies but I still don’t know who you are. Perhaps as you say I’m too young to have heard about a former glory like you.”

The sarcastic politeness of his tone made the woman grab the gun with more force, and for a tiny instant V thought he was going to be shot for being a ‘bigmouth’, as Nico was practically shouting in his ear with an hysterical ‘_What did I just tell you, you idiot?!_’.

“You are lucky I prefer you alive, boy. Besides…” V’s eyes opened more when Malphas reached back with her free hand in order to show the diary he had gone to steal. “I already have what I was looking for. So, this time, I’m afraid you won’t be able to convince anyone about The Poetic Burglar’s good nature.”

V’s eyebrows raised slightly when deducing by Malphas’ words that that woman may have been the one to blame for the robbery that took place that day.

“I managed to do it once, miss Malphas. So, what makes you think I won’t do it again?”

Malpha’s grin widened while pointing at the lying figures on the floor briefly, about whom V had almost forgotten.

“Because those people lying at your feet are officers, boy. They were waiting for you here, but unluckily for them, I came first. And since it’s been already 10 minutes since the last time they reported the situation...” Malphas watched the non-existent watch of her wrist. “I believe we will have company in 3...2...1....”

V was still assimilating the information Malphas had casually provided, about the police somehow having discovered about the theft, when some steps sounded in the adjacent room followed by a masculine voice that V didn’t recognize.

“Tony? Gale? You better not have fallen asleep: I wouldn’t like to say the Demon Chief you don’t take the watch seriously—”

By when V realized what was going to happen, Malphas had already turned around rapidly to shoot at the newcomer the moment the door snapped opened. The man heavily fell backwards with a shocked gasp and V’s body moved on his own to kneel next to him. He cursed when realizing the detective, a dark-skinned man around his sixties, wasn’t wearing a shield and blood was spurting from the bullet wound in his chest.

“If I were you, I would let it be, boy,” Malphas whispered cruelly when passing by, as V pressed both of his hands on the wound to try to stop the bleeding. “You’ll already have two deaths on you. I can assure you a third won’t mark the difference.”

V glared at the place where Malphas had been but the woman had already disappeared. He focused his attention on the man again and cursed under his breath when seeing the detective about to lose consciousness, which meant that leaving at that moment would be the same as letting him bleed to death. How could the night have worsened up that much?

“_V, the police have just surrounded the building,” _Nico said with a hurried tone as V stopped applying pressure for a moment in order to recover some duct tape from his backpack that Nico always insisted him to carry. _“You have to leave NOW.”_

Nico’s words reached his ears in the exact moment in which he heard the cars sirens sounding loudly in the street, but V didn’t lose his calm. He used the navy-blue cravat of the man to cover the wound and after securing it with the tape he continued pressing it while analyzing the situation. If he wanted to leave the building alive, succumbing to panic was the last thing he could allow, something that Nico was managing a little worse than him. 

“_Shit shit shit, V, they are entering the building. They will reach you in no time._”

“No, they won’t.” V checked one last time that the bleeding had been reduced before rapidly approaching the window of the office, not stopping on the other two agents because, by then, he knew it was too late for them, “I’m going to jump.”

“_Roger. Shit, next time you say a job is gonna be easy I swear that I’ll kill you, you hear me?!”_

‘_If there is a next time’_, V thought self-mockingly when looking down at the impressive height. He used his hands to prop himself up on the window. He sat on the edge with his hands grabbing the edge of the window and his legs hanging from the border. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let himself fall forward.

Adrenaline rushed through his body as he was precipitated to the void, his hands rapidly securing on the backpack handles. Only a couple of seconds passed until he activated the parachute Nico had decided to install in his bag as a ‘precaution’ that same week. Thankfully, if not something common, leaving a building in such a way wasn’t a first for him, which allowed him to reach one of the lower rooftops without much difficulty.

“_You still alive?_” Nico asked with impatience when he had barely landed on the rooftop.

“I am.” He pulled the small wire hanging from the backpack, causing the synthetic cloth to automatically fold itself, and rapidly began to rappel down the considerable smaller building to reach the floor level. “Though I lost the mask during the jump.”

“_Fuck the mask. We’ll buy a thousandth of them to celebrate we have survived this shitty night._”

V relaxed once again after his feet were safely planted on the street, realizing he had done it too soon when he turned the corner and ended face to face with someone who, for the first time, he really regretted to see.

* * *

Saying that Nero had felt extremely disappointed when Vergil left him out that night operation would be a total understatement. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Dante, who together with Trish and Lady had been present in the tactical meeting carried out in Vergil’s office, he was pretty sure he would have ended shouting at his father without mattering the consequences.

“Wait, is this some kind of joke?”

He hadn’t been able to push back those words when Vergil announced the three teams for that night vigilance and his name wasn’t mentioned.

“Do I perhaps look as if I’m joking?”

Vergil’s sarcastic but calm reply mixed with his imperturbable expression made Nero clench his jaw in familiar frustration.

“Well, you must be, since you haven’t assigned me to any of the teams.”

“That’s correct: I have not.” Vergil’s matter of fact tone had only made his anger to grow, “you have made a good investigation, officer. A really good one indeed, and under normal circumstances, including you in this operation would be certainly in order. However…” Vergil’s gaze harshened. “Given that your last involvements with The Poetic Burglar ended in him escaping, I prefer to leave the work to people who won’t hesitate in catching him.”

His father had a point, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel frustrated for being left out.

“Are you insinuating I don’t want to catch him?”

“No, what I say is that despite your good predisposition to do your job, your evident infatuation with that criminal can take the best of you, and I prefer to avoid such a thing from happening. So, as I said, you will stay out of this, Nero. If you do so, you will have my complete trust and the possibility of being promoted without having to wait to this Autumn examinations. But if you disobey…” Vergil’s tone turned warning. “Perhaps the promotion won’t be the only thing in being at stake.”

At the end he hadn’t had any other option than ‘officially’ accepting the Chief’s conditions, because like Hell if he was going to simply wait for news.

For that reason, when everyone left to the different possible crime scenes, instead of going home as Vergil had ordered him to do, he decided to patrol the area he innerly thought it was the most probable V would visit, that resulted to be the one Morrison was in charge of.

The modus operandi would be the same in all the places: two agents would stay inside the room where the object to steal was, with the objective of warning of any suspicious movement. That way, a second team composed of the leader and another two agents entered to catch the precise moment of the crime.

Since they wanted to avoid the press from discovering it and ruining everything, Vergil had decided to carry out the operation very discreetly, keeping all the agents in incognito and only alerting the owners of the items which could be potentially stolen so that all of them were casually ‘out’ that night (safely waiting in the police station).

Also, as important as the operation was for the reputation of Red Grave Police Department, unfortunately thefts weren’t the only crimes the police had to take care of in the city at night, which was the reason of assigning the lowest number of agents to each destination.

The night ended to be quite calm, almost boring, and Nero had been about to doze off while leaning against the wall of one of the closes building of the skyscraper where he suspected V would act that night.

Then, someone informed about one of the teams having missed the last report, and when Morrison’s words were interrupted by something that clearly sounded like a gunshot, Nero didn’t waste time in speeding towards the building.

Immediately, Vergil ordered all the units to leave their current position to go there. Nero’s first impulse was to go assist Morrison but then someone informed about the man being critical but alive, so he decided to focus on V’s location instead, with his head full of questions and his heart hammering against his chest. Now that he knew that the thief had an accomplice, and considering that, during their first meeting, V abandoned the scene of the crime by using a close alley, he deduced the man could try to do the same.

Also, he didn’t know what had happened up there so that Morrison was shot, but if V hadn’t been caught yet meant that the thief had needed to abandon the building incredibly quickly. That could mean two things: one, V had rappelled down the building; and second, he had used that weird flying device he used the last time to jump, as suicidal as that seemed to be. However, the first option would bring V too close to the building that the police was now surrounding, so Nero bet for the second, which prompted him to search for an alley that besides was close to a rooftop on which V could land safely from that skyscraper.

Nero had spent practically all his life in Red Grave. He knew the city’s structure like the palm of his hand after kicking the streets and running after criminals day and night. So, it was only natural that, by instinct, he chose the alley who brought him directly to The Poetic Burglar when this one was clearly trying to escape.

It took him a moment to notice what was off with the sight the thief presented, until he finally realized that it was the mask. Or better said, the absence of it. Nero’s heart, which was beating fast enough already, managed to fasten its pace when the faint streetlamp allowed him to also notice the blood stain covering the front V’s hoodie and gloves.

They stayed like that without moving, eyes locked, the police sirens forming a strange melody in the background. Nero was still trying to assimilate all what had happened in such a short period of time when V broke the silence by exhaling a long sigh.

“Well, it seems this is game over.”

Nero gulped, not liking the meaning of V’s defeated words.

That wasn’t how it was supposed to be, how he was supposed to _win_. Fuck, of course he had wanted to catch V, but this wasn’t the way, damn it.

He was still trying to know what to say when the portable radio he was wearing sounded in his belt, causing his eyes to automatically divert towards it.

“_Agent Morrison is in critical condition but stable, but there are two agents down. I repeat: we have two agents down._”

Nero gulped, unable not to think that in case of having participated in the operation maybe he...

“It wasn’t me.”

The thief’s words stopped that morbid thought from fully forming.

He looked at V again, and when finding this one holding his breath, as if waiting for his reaction, he didn’t hesitate in answering.

“I know.” V visibly relaxed at that. “But what the hell happened?”

V exhaled a shallow chuckle.

“Come on, Nero, we both know that at this point, you should read me my rights before I answer anything else.”

Nero realized V had a damn point there. At that moment he noticed his mobile vibrating and cursed when seeing it was Dante. He ignored the call for the time being and rapidly signaled with his head behind him.

“Okay, we’ll fix all this tomorrow, so wait for my call.”

Nero was about to return to the main street when realizing V wasn’t moving, staring at him with a shocked expression.

“What the hell are you waiting for? Just leave already!”

“You are letting me go.”

Nero looked at V as if he was dumb when this one talked in an incredulous tone.

“Yeah, I am. Because if I ever catch you it will be for a theft, not for a fucking murder you’re innocent of,” he snapped with impatience before emphatically signaling behind him with his thumb. “So now stop fucking wasting time and get the hell out of here.”

When V didn’t move and kept staring at him Nero was about to literally kick the man’s skinny ass so that he fucking moved. He was about to threaten V so that this one finally reacted when the thief leaned forward and V’s lips pressed against his.

Despite the urgency, Nero closed his eyes while kissing back, the fear he had managed to push away while going to find V being released in the way he heatedly pined the thief against the wall to attack his mouth with intensity. It took them some seconds to separate with their breathings mingling together.

“Maybe you were right,” V muttered when they separated. “This might be a little fucked up.”

Nero snorted softly when the bastard managed to make his tone sound ironic despite the fucking mess they were into.

“Yeah, it is. But we’ll figure this out somehow.” He separated from V to point at him with his index finger. “So don’t do anything stupid like leaving the city, okay? Just wait in your apartment until I get in touch.”

Nero didn’t know if V was being sincere when he nodded, but he only could hope since at that moment Dante called him again.

He rapidly walked towards the main street, looked back one last time to check V had already disappeared, and finally answered the call, getting ready for a night that promised to be quite long.

* * *

V had barely time to enter the van before Nico stepped on the gas pedal.

During the trip, she didn’t stop formulating the questions V himself had been asking to himself, about how Malphas _and _the police had managed to know what they planned to steal. V realized too late that he could have asked Nero about it, but at the moment he had been so surprised that the officer let him go that such an option hadn’t even crossed his mind.

Nico showed her reluctance of waiting for Nero’s call instead of gathering their indispensable stuff to abandon the city at that instant, but V managed to convince her it was the best option. He argued that, even if Nero hadn’t asked him to do so, no one could tie Mr. Vail with The Poetic Burglar or that night incident, so suddenly disappearing would only serve to confirm what Nero already knew about his identity.

It was past 2.30 a.m when Nico left him in his neighborhood. V decided to leave the clothes stained in blood with her so that Nico got rid of them, since she had better tools to do so. Nico also assured him she would arrange everything to take Griffon with them in case they needed to grab an early flight to Mallet, which usually was their destination when they needed to stay on the hiding after a job to think for their next move.

After taking a really necessary shower V spent the rest of the night packing everything and cleaning the apartment from top to bottom to be ready when he needed to abandon it, probably within a week at most. He only allowed himself to take a brief nap from 4 to 6, which eventually it turned to be a rather bad idea since his dreams were plagued with nightmares in which Malphas shot at him, or in which that detective was replaced by Nero who died in his arms without him being able to do anything to avoid it. 

When he checked the news the next morning, the incident of two police officers ending dead in a robbery had already become trending topic, although for the time being no one blamed The Poetic Burglar for it. Around 9 a.m. his mobile finally sounded, announcing an incoming message. V’s heart skipped a beat, but it was only Nevan saying that she would probably need his help for the next weekend for a talk, and that she would obviously pay for the extra hours in the weekend.

V was thinking about how to hint that perhaps he wouldn’t be there by then when someone knocked at the door. Automatically he got in alert, since he wasn’t expecting any visitors. He approached it, looked through the peephole, and his heart stopped when seeing Nero’s uncle at the other side.

He studied the possibility of pretending not being at home, but the detective knocked again with his usual calm. Eventually, V thought that him not being at home in a weekend would be quite more suspicious than simply answering. Besides, he reminded himself that the police didn’t have anything against Mr. Vail, so perhaps the detective only required his services again after the diary was stolen, sadly not by him.

After taking a deep breath, V opened the door, offering Dante a moderately surprised expression.

“Good morning, detective.” Definitely it would be also suspicious not to ask about that black eye. “Rough night?”

V didn’t know Dante much, but the short chuckle the detective exhaled sounded a little fake to his ears.

“Oh, this was just the result of a not very fortunate date, but yeah, it has been a hellish night.” Dante’s smile kept being in place, but his tone turned more serious, “however, before continuing talking about this, I’m afraid you will have to come with me, Mr. Vail.”

V frowned.

“Where?”

As if they had been waiting for his words, at that moment two police cars appeared from the other side of the street with a speed that bordered to be illegal in that residential area.

V managed to keep an acceptably neutral expression when several agents exited from them, but real confusion appeared in his expression when Dante talked with a light strained tone that showed he wasn’t comfortable with what was coming next.

“To the Police Department. You are under arrest.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think that waaay too many things happened on this chapter but honestly, this time I didn't want to interrupt the action xDD  
As the cliffhanger clearly hints, next chapter will be intense as well, but as usual, you can be sure that V and Nero will have their particular happy ending :))


	15. Three conditions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy the chapter, Saya_Flourite, because I'm sure you will go kya in certain parts xDDD
> 
> Once said that: time for the shit to hit the fan! ^^U

V stopped leaning on the table of the interrogation room and reclined back against the metallic chair he was sitting on. He slid a little backwards to be able to cross his legs more comfortably, settling his hands on his lap while distractedly looking around even if he had the room elements memorized: an old TV mounted in one of the room corners, a one-way mirror in front of him, and a clock hanging on the wall whose loud ticking was beginning to irritate him.

He exhaled a long sigh, not bothering to hide his impatience while staring at the mirror, since even the most innocent soul would feel that way after being locked for almost two hours without any kind of information. Now he regretted having refused that coffee Dante had offered him. The lack of sleep of the previous night was starting to affect him. Of course, he hadn’t believed Dante when the detective assured him that someone would come to talk to him ‘in some minutes’, but he hadn’t expected that the wait turned to be that long. For sure they were using that technique to make him nervous, but he didn’t plan to give such pleasure to whoever was at the other side of that mirror.

He wondered who was behind it, probably observing his every move. Was it someone he knew? Perhaps Dante, or that woman who worked closely with Nero? Or, as much as such perspective bothered him, could it be Nero himself? 

When that last thought assaulted him, V forced himself not to reach any hasty conclusions regarding the officer. Dante hadn’t given him many details about why he was being arrested, the man’s easy-going attitude contrasting with his firmness to refuse to answer V’s questions. The only thing V had got from the detective was that he was suspected to be involved in a crime, which was an extremely ambiguous explanation.

V didn’t know either what evidence the police could hold against him. Perhaps Malphas had anonymously informed about him? If the woman had managed to discover what he planned to steal, he would be naive by assuming _that _was the only thing she had learned about him. However, he doubted she would play that card. It could put her at risk as well, and her background was way worse than his.

Perhaps that agent who had been shot had somehow identified him? But he had been wearing a mask at the time, and the detective was at the verge of collapsing at the moment, so it was unlikely the man had been able to take a proper look at him.

Or, maybe, he was only overthinking and his situation wasn’t as bad as it looked. After all Nero had told him to wait for his call to figure things out, so maybe this was some kind of scenario that the officer had arranged. Certainly, sending Dante to arrest him was something unorthodox to say the least, but it wasn’t the first time Nero’s way to handle things surprised him, so it wasn’t a completely crazy assumption.

That last hypothesis was soon discarded when the door of the interrogation room finally opened. V’s eyes also opened more when seeing the Chief of the Police Department in person enter, sustaining a folder in his hand. Despite the situation, V couldn’t help to scan the man discreetly from head to toe as this one gave a quick order to the officer who had remained outside. He had thought it already when investigating Nero with Nico, but the officer couldn’t deny he was that man’s son: it was obvious from whom he had inherited his impressive physique.

Also, he couldn’t help to regret being dressing so [sporty](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2596/9148/products/Spring-2019-A-new-long-sleeved-t-shirt-for-men-and-a-Korean-version-of-the_800x.jpg?v=1576106549) when the Chief was wearing an impeccable [suit](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71pGg3Cg8kL._AC_UL1500_.jpg), as if he was just about to attend a routine meeting. He felt a little in disadvantage, so he made sure to hold Vergil’s gaze without blinking as this one approached to stop at the other side of the table.

The man remained standing for some seconds, simply observing him from above in a way that clearly wanted to state who was in charge. If the Chief was surprised for V coping with the scanning without shifting uncomfortably in his seat, he didn’t let it show. He simply separated the chair from the table while beginning to talk with a polite tone that had nothing to do with his brother or son’s ruder way of interacting.

“I think this is the first time we meet in person, Mr. Vail. Though I must say I have heard a lot about you.”

V hinted a small smile and nodded towards Vergil in recognition.

“Only good things, I was going to say, but considering my current situation perhaps it would be a little ironic.”

Vergil didn’t say anything, his eyes still analyzing him, which made V be even more careful than usual with his body language. He had the feeling that Vergil’s gaze could strip someone from his secrets in less than a blink, something he better avoid.

“I confess I wasn’t expecting to be interrogated by the Chief of the Police Department”, V commented, straightening his position on the chair while Vergil finally sat down in front of him, “I didn’t know such a task entered in the Chief’s duties.”

“Normally it doesn’t, but I am particularly interested in the case you have been allegedly involved”, Vergil interlaced his fingers on the table and looked at him with curiosity, “were you perhaps expecting to see my son?”

V managed that his mouth didn’t end half-opened when hearing the extremely direct question, but his light surprise must have shown in his face nevertheless because Vergil continued.

“I am aware of Nero’s extracurricular activities, so I know he went to you a couple of times for… ‘advice’.”

V certainly didn’t know how much Vergil knew about his involvement with Nero, but for the way he had sarcastically spelled that last word, it seemed that the man knew more than him or even Nero had predicted.

“Yes, he did”, V admitted casually, crossing his arms on the table surface, “I did my best to fulfill all his demands, so I hope he was satisfied with my services.”

His answer was perfectly acceptable, but he could have phrased it differently, since it didn’t go unnoticed by him the way Vergil momentarily clenched his jaw. He was hearing in his mind Nico shouting ‘bigmouth with danger kink’ at him when Vergil talked again.

“I have no doubt he was”, Vergil commented with an unreadable tone before offering him what it could have been considered an amicable smile in anyone who wasn’t the Chief himself, “turning to the matter in hand, I was informed you were rather collaborative and didn’t resist to come here. Those are positive points for you at the very least.”

V chuckled softly.

“Well, I’m glad to hear that, although I would prefer to know the motive of my presence here.”

Vergil frowned slightly.

“Didn’t Dante explain you the motive for the arrest?”

It was obvious Vergil was feigning confusion in a purposely poor way, but V agreed on playing the game carefully not to say something that could betray him.

“Not in detail. He only told me the police suspected I was involved in some sort of crime.”

“And you didn’t bother to ask more about it before accepting to accompany him here?”, Vergil pointed at him with his chin briefly and V recognized that gesture as one Nero had also adopted, “could it be that you actually have something you feel guilty about, Mr. Vail?”

He chuckled again.

“With due respect, sir, it’s not the first time one of your agents accuses me of being a criminal without solid evidence, so I simply believed it was better to voluntarily come here to fix the misunderstanding.”

He hadn’t said any names on purpose, but if Vergil had understood he was referring to Nero the man didn’t mention anything about it, limiting himself to nod thoughtfully.

“So, just to be clear: you claim that your presence here is a misunderstanding, and that therefore you are innocent of whatever crime we may be accusing you of. Is that correct?”

“It is.”

He answered with conviction because it was the only thing he could do at the moment. Besides, even if the police happened to have proofs, such as the mask he lost or the agent’s testimony about having seen someone similar to him, he knew there was nothing conclusive. Also, even if the police claimed he had been arrested by probable cause, the procedure had been extremely irregular, so he could probably do something about it if worse came to worst.

Vergil only nodded when hearing his answer, a hint of amusement appearing then in the man’s faction.

“I believe you. I’m convinced that Mr. Vail is an honest man who lives an honest life. But if you don’t mind…”, Vergil finally opened the folder, his lips curving upwards in a wolfish smirk, “...let’s better talk about your past, Mr. _Vitale_.”

* * *

Nero cursed when calling V again and hearing for the third his annoying voicemail. He hanged up and insulted himself internally once again for not having asked V more details about what had happened. The responsible thing would have been to do so. However, when seeing V so close to the murder scene while being covered in blood, his priority had been that the man left before he could be accused of it.

He hadn’t wanted to take any risks. Everyone in the department knew about cases of innocent people who got into jail for crimes they hadn’t committed, so with V’s criminal report his guiltiness would be practically assured. He only hoped that the thief’s mobile happened to be out of battery and that he wasn’t purposely ignoring his calls, or worse: in a plane heading god knows where.

Deciding there was no point in keeping worrying about ifs, Nero passed a hand through his head before leaning back against the wall. He was in the hospital, sitting outside Morrison’s room while waiting for the man to wake up in order to talk to him. Three hours had passed since Vergil had sent him there first time in the morning, without him having any time to rest nor physically and much less emotionally.

He closed his eyes, gritting his teeth in frustration when remembering the crime scene and the visits to the families of the fallen officers. He had accompanied Lady during the second. His admiration for the woman had grown even more while silently observing how she delivered the news, without unnecessary preambles but with a delicacy that she didn’t use to display. At least, Lucia had been able to determine that they had suffered a painless death, but the fact that a bullet in the head was something that caused comfort still pissed Nero off to no end.

Fuck, the operation was supposed to be safe. The only risks were that a damn object was stolen or that V escaped again, but no one was supposed to die, damnit.

“Officer”, Nero was startled when a nurse suddenly addressed him, making him open his eyes brusquely, “I’m sorry for the scare, but Mr. Morrison has just woken up.”

Nero nodded, muttering a hurried ‘_Thank you_’ before entering the room. He sighed with relief when seeing Morrison trying to sit up against the pillows while a young nurse who was desperately trying to stop that from happening.

“Mr. Morrison, I insist you should remain in a horizontal position! Your wound hasn’t healed completely and if you move—”

“Look, son, it’s not my first time being shot, okay? So if I begin to bleed again or something, I’ll warn you”, the nurse opened and closed his mouth with an horrified face when hearing Morrison’s carefree tone while the old man turned towards Nero, “please, can you tell this sacredly cat I’m not dying any time soon?”

Despite the circumstances, Nero couldn’t help to chuckle before facing the nurse.

“Don’t worry: I’ll keep watch on him.”

He talked with his best reassuring tone, but the young man didn’t look very convinced while looking at them alternatively. Eventually he seemed to give up and leave in order to attend other more-docile patients, though not without heatedly insisting Nero to call for the doctor if Morrison had any problems while breathing, or if the machine beeped in alert for a too low pulse.

“Yes, yes, don’t worry, he will”, Morrison said, shooing the poor man away with impatience while Nero approached to the bed, “jeez, these youngsters get scared too easily. In my times when someone was shot there wasn’t so much drama.”

“I didn’t know gunpowder was already discovered by then.”

Morrison only managed to keep his angry expression at the mention of his age for some seconds before exhaling a laugh that sounded a little more tired than usual.

“You’re lucky I have this thing connected”, he threatened playfully while signaling the drip in his arm, before his tone turned more serious, “so, Tony and Gale…”

Morrison didn’t need to end the sentence, and Nero didn’t have to speak. His expression said it all.

“I see”, Morrison closed his eyes and exhaled a long sigh, “those two were still too young. It’s not fair”, he looked at Nero again, “did we manage to catch the culprits?”

Nero shook his head negatively.

“No, not yet”, he hesitated about how to formulate the question, “Morrison, do you remember what happened? Did you manage to see who shot you?”

The man’s frustrated sigh already anticipated his answer.

“Sorry, kid, but I have no idea who could be. I was shot the moment the door opened”, he frowned, “but I think there were two people there.”

Nero suppressed a relieved sigh, glad that his belief of V being unable to shoot someone coldblooded was confirmed by someone else.

“Did you manage to hear any names? Or something about what they were talking about?”

“I didn’t hear any names, but I’m positive the one who shot me was a woman”, Nero’s eyes opened more at the revelation, “and I think she called the person who saved me ‘kid’. Or ‘boy’, I don’t remember well.”

Nero frowned with confusion.

“The person who saved you?”, he repeated, causing Morrison to nod.

“When I was shot someone came to me”, he gestured to his bandaged chest, “he began to press the wound, and he kept doing so until I ended unconscious at least.”

Nero’s eyes opened even more. That information was new. When finding Morrison with that improvised bandage everyone in the force had assumed that the officers in arriving had been the ones in stopping the bleeding, since these ones hadn’t mentioned anything about finding Morrison in such a way. Now he understood why V had been covered in blood, and the realization that the man had risked to be caught in order to save Morrison made him feel a wave of gratitude and affection towards the thief.

At that moment Morrison yawned, clearly feeling more tired than he was showing. Nero was about to take his leave to let the man rest when the door of the room opened and a blonde young woman stomped inside, dressing in the latest fashion and with her make up a little smeared surely for having cried.

“Oh my god, dad, I’m so glad you’re okay!!”

“_Patty_?!”, Nero rapidly stepped aside so that the young woman could approach her father to hug him with too much effusiveness, “what are you doing here?! Weren’t you in your study trip?!”

“And I was! But we heard in the news about that robbery and I called you but you didn’t answer! So I called Dante and he told me what happened.”

“What?! Damn, I’m going to kill that idiot. Why did he tell you? You should be having fun right now instead of wasting time with your old man!”

“DAD, TO HELL WITH THAT TRIP: YOU ALMOST DIE, REMEMBER?!”

Nero had to push back the laughter while looking at the conversation father and daughter were having. Once again, he felt extremely glad that Morrison was okay. The man had been friends with his uncle for more than a decade and it was like part of the family, so losing him would have been a rather big blow.

When realizing that the discussion could last for a while, Nero decided it was time to come back to the police department to tell the others about what Morrison had witnessed, so he waited until the old man and Patty had to stop to gather some air to announce he was leaving. Patty seemed to notice then that he had been there the whole time, because the woman exhaled a high-pitched cry and passed to hug him tightly, since it had been quite a long time since the last time they saw each other.

Morrison immediately began to threaten him teasingly, saying he should be careful with where he put his hands, since it wasn’t a secret that Patty had developed a big teenager crush on him when they were little. Patty provoked that the machine connected to Morrison biped louder when she ‘innocently’ commented that she had just turned eighteen, and that therefore he (Nero) could do whatever he wanted to her without her father being able to protest. That was the moment in which Nero decided to abandon the room with a hurried goodbye, since everyone knew how scary Morrison could be with his daughter’s potential boyfriends or crushes.

Once he was safely on the street, Nero called V again. When he received no answer, he called Dante instead, deciding he would go to see V the moment he had some free time, which would be probably at night.

He frowned when Dante didn’t pick up his call either, so he tried with Lady, then with Trish, and finally in a desperate measure with his father, but all the calls were fruitless.

“Shit, what the hell is going on?”, he muttered, eventually dialing the name of the reception.

He walked impatiently from one side to the other of the street, and when someone picked up, he snapped the next words without thinking.

“Fucking finally, where the fuck is everyone?”

“_S-Sorry, may I ask who I am talking to?_”

Nero closed his eyes and took a deep breath, forcing himself not to pay his frustration with the rookie who was in charge of the reception.

“I’m Nero Sparda, badge number 08032019”, he said more calmly, even if his impatience kept being there, “I’m trying to get in touch with my uncle—with Dante Sparda, but he isn’t answering his phone. And neither are Detective Arkham or the Chief. Can you tell me where they are?”

“_Alright, officer Sparda, give me a moment_”, the rookie seemed to consult something before talking again with a nervous tone, “_uhm_, _y-yes, they are in the department_.”

Nero waited for the officer to keep talking, but the man didn’t.

“So? Where the hell are they?”

There was another pause, followed by an even more nervous answer.

“_I’m not authorized to tell you._”

Nero frowned, opened his mouth to speak again, and then remained quiet, feeling his heart beat faster while suddenly connecting the dots.

“You have to be kidding me…”

He hanged up without hearing what the rookie was saying, running towards the taxi stop situated next to the hospital. He practically jumped in the first car and snapped the address of the Police Department with urgency, while really hoping to be wrong about what was happening there.

* * *

With all the experience V had gathered during his works, he had believed that no one could take him off guard in a conversation. Or, at least, that in case someone managed to do so, he would always be able to improvise.

However, when hearing that name, _his _name, leaving Vergil’s mouth so casually, he couldn’t react in time. He simply stayed there, frozen, watching Vergil’s lips move without hearing the words he was emitting.

“Mr. Vitale, are you listening to me?”

V focused again when Vergil repeated his name. He tried to gulp but his throat felt completely dry, because there was only one explanation why Vergil could know about that name, and it was one he had been periodically pushing aside even if the doubt had always been planted within him.

“How do you—”, he stopped in time, but the triumphant glint in Vergil’s gaze told him the mistake was done, “where did you get that name from?”

A slow smirk formed in Vergil’s mouth.

“I’m afraid the merit isn’t mine, but my son’s.”

The words didn’t sink completely in V, since almost immediately Vergil lowered his eyes towards the report and proceeded to pretend to read, even if it was evident he was reciting everything from memory alone.

“Vitale Blake, currently thirty-one. Raised in Mallet orphanage, where he was abandoned when he was two days old. His last name was chosen by him, due to his liking for William Blake’s poems. According to the nuns who raised him, he was very intelligent but showed clear adaptation issues, resumed in problems in making friends and following the rules. The typical profile of a problematic kid who suffered from lack of love and attention, I would dare to say.”

V was still partly in shock when Vergil took an envelope that was attached to the folder and opened it, extracting from it several photographs of him in different times of his life: the picture taken in the orphanage when he was around ten, a couple of pictures when he was nineteen and he needed to gain some quick money as a model, and the most recent one where he could be seen with other people next to a truck in an alley, dressed completely in black while wearing a hood.

During the next five minutes, V listened to Vergil repeat everything he had mentioned Nero two nights ago about his life. However, the difference was that the Chief was now mentioning specific and accurate dates and cases where he had participated before meeting Nico and becoming The Poetic Burglar. In fact, that last photograph Vergil had showed belonged to one of his last jobs, when one of his partners was about to kill a civilian and he decided to be on his own from then on.

“When Nero claimed that you were The Poetic Burglar, nothing came up when searching about Mr. Vail. However, your real name allowed us to piece things together way more quickly. I must say…”, Vergil’s eyes slowly dragged upwards until digging on V, “...that I’m impressed with my son’s dedication to fulfill his job. He had to investigate you really thoroughly to gather all this information.”

V gritted his teeth, also understanding the hidden implications of Vergil’s words. He tried to make his voice sound as indifferent and calmed as possible, but his efforts were in vain, since it eventually came extremely strained.

“Did Nero elaborate that report?”

Vergil sustained his gaze.

“He carried out the main investigation that allowed us to fill it.”

V gulped with difficulty before having to avert his eyes, reclining back against his chair defeatedly, his arms hanging on either side of his body.

Now that he knew that Nero had exploited every single detail he had shared, it was evident that gathering all that information had been Nero’s goal from the start. For sure the boy had asked him out just with that purpose in mind, and _he _was the main culprit for such a development. After all he had _never _hidden his attraction towards Nero. He had basically served the officer the chance to catch him on a silver platter and Nero had only needed to follow the flow, to play the game V had been idiot enough to initiate, to wait for the suitable time until he was comfortable enough to share something he shouldn’t.

Had Nero slept with him only for that purpose? Had he somehow foreseen that, during such a vulnerable, theoretically intimate moment, V would reveal secrets that otherwise he wouldn’t? Had he let him go on purpose the previous night so that V decided to stay instead of running away? Had he been pretending to be worried about him, to care about him, when his only desire was to see him behind bars?

A humorless laugh escaped him while anger slowly invaded him, addressed mainly at himself. How could he have been so stupid to lower his guard so much around Nero? How could he have been so naive to trust Nero even while knowing about his desire to catch him? How could he have been so blind not to realize Nero was only using him? He thought he was good at reading people, but he couldn’t have failed more this time. The evidence was clear, and it was just in front of him, impossible to deny: the proof that, all that time, Nero had been pretending to be honestly interested in him only for this moment.

And such revelation wasn’t only embarrassing, and frustrating, and disappointing, but also produced a heavy pressure in V’s chest that made the action of breathing difficult. As Nico liked to say sometimes, ‘karma was a bitch’, and this time it had punished him by sending someone who would steal his heart only to return it broken to him.

“You look pale, Mr. Vitale. Do you need something? A glass of water perhaps?”

V clenched his jaw and slowly looked at Vergil again, the idea that Nero may have been following his father’s order of getting close to him making him feel even angrier at himself.

“No, thank you, I’m fine”, he eventually said, managing to make his tone sound firm and also to keep the chief’s glance despite that heaviness in his chest, “but I still fail to comprehend what I’m doing here, sir, apart from seeing that someone has enough time to investigate a civilians’ past and make hypothesis about his involvement in old cases which, correct me if I’m mistaken, are clearly lacking proofs, since I hardly doubt a blurry photograph is enough to count as proper evidence.”

V noted himself a win when Vergil half-closed his eyes, probably not liking his accurate but slightly arrogant answer. However, the Chief recovered quickly, and the ultimate security of his words put V in alert again.

“You are certainly right. For now, we haven’t any evidence that allows us to condemn you for any of your past crimes, and much less for your identity as the Poetic Burglar. However, this is going to change right now because...”, Vergil reclined a little forward on his seat, “...you are going to admit on your volition to have been in that room last night, when Agent Morrison was shot and William's Blake original notebook was stolen.”

V raised an eyebrow.

“You mean you are going to force a fake confession out of me, sir?”

Vergil chuckled softly when hearing his defiant answer.

“Of course not. Torturing suspects is malpractice and something that I would never approve in this department”, the dangerous smile Vergil was displaying while talking said otherwise, “as I said, you are going to admit it willingly.”

When finishing speaking Vergil raised his hand briefly, as some kind of agreed signal addressed to the ones behind the mirror. The TV hanging on the corner of the room turned suddenly on and V straightened his position with his eyes opened wide, since he could see Nico being interrogated by Dante in a room very similar to the one he was in.

“I don’t know if you are familiar with this, but the penalty for fake impersonation and fraud is extremely variable”, V looked at Vergil when the last extracted some more pictures from the report, on which an apparently pregnant Nico appeared dressing elegantly, “however, in Nicoletta Goldstein’s case, considering that she provided a fake identity to attend a private auction, illegally participated to raise the value of a piece of art, and later lied to a law enforcement officer when being asked about her identity, I would dare to say that she would be in prison for two years at least. Probably more.”

V’s long fingers turned into fists on his thighs while staring at the TV again, in which Dante was trying to reason to Nico and this one was clearly refusing to collaborate. It could be seen in the way she was crossing her arms while looking defiantly at the detective.

The TV turned off at that moment, which forced V to look at the Chief again as this one interlaced his fingers again on the table.

“My patience has a limit, Mr. Vitale, so make your choice: you confess your implication in last night incident and collaborate with us, or Ms. Goldstein ends behind bars for an indeterminate amount of time that, I assure you, will be the longest I can get.”

As if it had been prepared, the door of the room opened and Dante stepped inside with a serious expression that again showed he wasn’t very comfortable with the situation he was living. However, V’s eyes were immediately dragged to Nico, who was being practically dragged by two officers who were having seriously difficulties in keeping her still.

“Fuck, how many times should I tell you I was working alone?!”, Nico looked at V for a moment and snorted loudly, “what, is this the freak I’m supposed to know? For thousandth time: I - DON’T - know - HIM, ‘kay? This gal is a lone bitch, thank you very much. So stop giving me headaches with all those stupid questions and let me do my calls because I know I have that right so—”

V closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose while Nico continued with her rambling to cover for him. Among all the mistakes he had made, having got Nico involved in that mess, when the woman had warned him over and over about the risks, was the one he regretted the most. So, he didn’t have the least hesitation in digging his eyes on Vergil and talk with security.

“I will confess.”

“_V_!”, Nico shouted in horror, just before opening her eyes wide and clearing her throat, “I-I mean, BE cool, dude-that-I-don’t-know: confessing is a really serious thing and before saying ANYTHING stupid you should—”

“Nico, it’s fine”, his serene comment made Nico shut up instantly, allowing him to continue, “I admit I was involved in last night incident, and that I witnessed Agent Morrison being shot.”

V couldn’t bring himself to look at Nico: first, because he had screwed it up really badly and she was paying it because of it; and second, because he refused to break eye contact with Vergil. However, he heard the trembling, frustrated _‘Damnit_’ Nico let out, which provoked his tone to sound harsher than intended, not liking to hear the usual cheery woman sounding that way.

“However, I will only collaborate under two conditions.”

Vergil chuckled at that moment, as if he found the question ridiculous.

“You know you are in no position to demand anything, right Mr. Vitale?”

“On the contrary, Chief, it’s you the one who cannot refuse to agree to my demands”, V counterattacked, “there is a criminal out there who didn’t hesitate in murdering two of your agents and almost managed to kill a third, stealing that diary in the process, so I’m sure you are willing to catch her as soon as possible.”

“And how do I know you are not making all that up and that, in reality, you are the one who carried out those crimes?”

“Because in that case I doubt you would have been so merciful with me.”

“You right, kid: your blood would be now in the table if you were the culprit.”

V had forgotten Dante was there until this one talked, making Vergil throw a warning glance at his younger brother, which made the last do the zipping-mouth gesture with his hand.

“Alright. Let’s hear about those conditions.”

V suppressed a relieved sigh, since he hadn’t been entirely sure about Vergil agreeing to them, and continued.

“First, a signed declaration that Nicoletta Goldstein will be cleared of all charges. In exchange, she will also participate in the operation to catch the criminal.”

“Do not get ahead of yourself", Vergil warned, “I’m the one who decides who works in the case.”

“Fine, in that case I have three conditions, and Nico working with us is the second.”

The muffled cough Dante let out sounded like a suspicious laugh, which was confirmed when Vergil threw a new glare at his brother.

“You heard it, old man”, Nico set herself free from the agents' grip to step behind him, settling both of her hands on his shoulders protectively, “I’m sticking with V to the end. Besides, you can bet none of your shitty agents can compete against my awesome skills.”

Vergil clicked his tongue.

“I’ll take that claim very seriously, Ms. Goldstein. You better not be selling yourself too high”, the Chief turned towards him again, “and the third condition?”

V gritted his teeth for a moment and made his demand with a firm tone that didn't leave room for negotiation.

* * *

Nero snapped the door of the police department open with such energy that the officer in the reception almost spilled all his coffee on the table.

“O-Officer Sparda?”, the rookie said as Nero passed him by with determined steps, “I-is there something you need to…? W-Wait, you are not allowed to enter there!”

Nero ignored the man’s nervous warning and continued walking in the direction of the interrogation rooms with his heart hammering in his chest, not stopping cursing under his breath for even one second.

“Nero, wait!”

It had been Lady the one who had called his name from behind, surely after that officer warned her about his presence there. He stopped, waited for the woman to rush to his side, and talked before she could say anything.

“Where is V?”, Lady pursed her lips together, which confirmed his suspicions, “he is here, right? He’s been interrogated? Did my father order all of you not to tell me anything?”

Lady exhaled a resigned sigh and closed her eyes shut before nodding.

“Yes, he did, but...hey!”, Nero continued walking with his jaw clenched before Lady could add anything else, forcing her to run after him with her boots sounding loud on the floor, “listen, Nero, it’s for the best! Look, I promise that we will fill you in later, but given your story with that man you couldn’t expect that the Demon Chief let you handle it and—”

In the second turn of the corridor Nero stopped in his tracks so suddenly that Lady bumped against his back with a huff, but he didn’t notice the hit. His eyes were transfixed on one of the interrogation rooms from where Dante had just exited, followed by a handcuffed V whose arms were grabbed by two officers.

Nero observed the scene without moving, not knowing very well which feeling predominated in him at that moment: if confusion, surprise, or worry. However, when V’s gaze finally stopped on him, he realized it was a mix of all of them, because never before he had seen the thief’s green eyes showing so much hatred before the man averted them, as if he refused to keep looking at him.

That way to avoid him made his stomach drop, and it was probably the reason why he couldn’t react in time when someone suddenly approached him in some quickly steps to grab the front of his t-shirt.

He had barely registered that V’s accomplice had managed to set herself free to approach him when suddenly the woman’s knee impacted against his crotch with force, making him exhale a gasp while bending in two for the piercing pain that assaulted him.

“Take that, asshole!!”, he heard her snap with fury before Dante, who had rushed to her side, managed to grab her before she could hit him again, “shit, V may be a thief, but he didn’t stab you in the back!! Just wait for these guys to take their eyes off me because I plan to turn you into a eunuch!!”

Nero was trying to understand what the woman meant with that when at that moment Vergil stepped out the room. His father looked at him briefly but almost immediately turned towards the enraged woman, who was still fighting to set herself free from Dante’s grip.

“Ms. Goldstein, I think I’ve been generous enough by allowing you to keep Mr. Vitale company, so don’t make me regret my decision or the deal will be over. Understood?”

Nero didn’t notice Dante saying a way kinder ‘_Please, love_’ towards the woman who seemed to convince her to calm down. The mind-numbing ache that was starting to spread from his groin to his stomach was also left in the background after hearing his father call V in such a way, since he suddenly understood the motive for the thief’s hate towards him.

He stood up with difficulty, barely noticing that Lady had helped him do that, and when V passed by his side, he couldn’t refrain himself.

“V”, the officers leading the thief stopped when he talked, but V kept looking in front of him, ignoring him, “V, I... I didn’t...”

“Who told you to stop, officers?”, Vergil intervened with a reproachful tone, “lead Mr. Vitale and Ms. Goldstein to the cells and make sure that _no one_ else visits them.”

The officers left with a hurried ‘_Yes, sir_’, and the strike of discomfort that Nero suffered when V didn’t even spare a last look towards him felt even worse than the kick he had barely received. V’s accomplice dedicated him an infuriated glance when she passed by but followed Vergil’s warning by walking behind V and the officers, surely not wanting to risk to be removed from V’s side.

During the next moments no one talked, being Dante the first who reacted by approaching Nero in a surprisingly cautious manner.

“Are you okay, kid? Shit, that gal surely knows how to kick. You sure you don’t need to go to the nursery to—?”

The only place where Nero went was towards Vergil, in order to grab him by the front of his expensive vest to snarl the next words.

“What the fuck did you do?”

If gazes killed, Nero would have been instantly dead. However, despite the icy glare Vergil was dedicating him, the man didn’t make any attempt of pushing him away yet.

“Careful with your tone, officer”, Vergil hissed in a dangerous tone, “I remind you we are at work. That’s not a way to talk to your boss.”

“To hell with that! How the hell did you know that name?”

“Guys, why don’t you try to take a deep breath and—”

“_Shut up!_”

When both him and Vergil shouted that, Dante exhaled a defeated sigh and rubbed the back of his neck before dropping against the wall, crossing his arms while Lady patted his shoulder in silence, indicating that was not his war to fight.

“So you spied what I was investigating, didn’t you?”

“If with spy you mean completing the job _you _refused to finish yes, officer, I did.”

“And I guess sending me with Morrison was just an excuse to keep me out of this, huh?”

“Indeed it was, because it was the only way to assure you wouldn’t ruin everything again.”

“Ruin— I was the one who always managed to discover what V planned to steal!”

“And what’s the point of doing such a wonderful work if you let the suspect escape each time in order to whore around?”

“You damn jerk—!”

Nero raised his hand to punch his father, but the moment he released the man’s clothes this one forcibly pushed him back to slam his back against the wall. Vergil pressed his arm in horizontal just under his neck with enough force to make him feel an annoying lack of air but without actually strangling him.

“I warned you, Nero”, Vergil coldly said, fixing his harsh gaze on him, “I did it more than once, and more than twice. I hinted very clearly that there would be consequences if you didn’t take this seriously, but you didn’t listen. Each opportunity you had to catch that thief, you wasted it. You prolonged the case only to satisfy your passing whim regarding that man. And what’s the result? One of his works ended wrong, two of our officers are now in the morgue, and such situation could have been avoided if you had done your job right from the very start.”

Vergil forcibly released him, but Nero stayed in the same position, unable to find the words to reply his father back because that last sentence had felt like a punch in the gut.

“I have made a deal with Mr. Vitale, and he has agreed to collaborate”, Vergil proceeded to say after rearranging his vest, “in exchange, he demanded certain things, and he was particularly clear in one of them.”

Nero gulped, already suspecting what Vergil was going to say before his father confirmed it with a definitive tone.

“He specifically requested you to be removed from the investigation, and since that man's collaboration will be vital to catch the true culprit I must comply such petition. So, from now on, you are out of this case, officer. You must handle everything you have from The Poetic Burglar’s case and not waste any more time in this matter. Because if I discover you are investing a single second of your work in this, you will be instantly fired. There won’t be more warnings or punishments: you will pack your things and leave. Have I made myself clear?”

Nero didn’t answer immediately, his mind stuck to what Vergil had said about having the blame in those men’s deaths, and also in V being the one in basically asking never to see him again.

“I have made you a question, officer.”

Nero gulped again and nodded once, brusquely, muttering a defeated ‘_Yes, sir_’ while leaning against the wall, his gaze focused on the ground.

During the next moments Nero barely paid attention about what the others did. He missed the way Vergil stared at him in silence for some seconds, as if debating himself between adding anything else or not before finally taking his leave after exhaling a deep sigh. He also missed Dante making an attempt to approach him just to be stopped by Lady again, who signaled towards the exit with her head, indicating him it was better to leave Nero alone.

Almost five minutes later Nero finally left the corridor, and another five minutes later of walking in automatic mode he found himself in front of the Captain’s office instead of at his desk, even if he had intended to go there. He was about to leave, not very sure why he had ended there, but at the last second his body moved for himself and knocked, entering when Trish said a soft ‘_It's open_’ from the inside.

The woman was finishing writing something, her usually loose hair pushed up in a high ponytail, which proved she was concentrated on what she was doing, which basically was to take care of Vergil’s tasks as this one focused on the investigation.

At that moment she raised her face from the paper, and her clear eyes opened more when seeing him there.

“Nero? Dear, is something wrong?”

Hearing that familiar concern in her voice was all it took so that everything went crashing down. 

Nero didn’t realize he was crying until Trish stood up and approached him to hug him tightly, one her hands rubbing the back of his head soothingly as the other did it on his back, as she used to do when he was little and needed comfort.

He wasn’t little anymore. He was a full-grown man who believed he deserved to become a detective. But still, during the following minutes, he simply stood there, hugging Trish while letting out all what had been bubbling up inside him:

The tension of the previous night when he learned that two officers were dead and Morrison was about to be; the fear of thinking that V could have been hurt too for some stressing seconds before realizing he was fine; the frustration of seeing the officers’ families suffer for those unfair deaths; the guilt for being the main culprit of that operation that had failed; and finally, the pain of knowing that whatever he had come to have with V was over, and that there was no way he could ever have it back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I repeat: everything will end happily <3 <3


	16. Chances

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And there we go from 18 chapters to 20, BUT I think this time is the definitive estimation (Saya, _don't laugh_).

Two weeks had passed since Nero was left out The Poetic Burglar’s case, and during that time all the cases he was assigned could be divided into two well differentiated categories: trivial to the point that the dumbest of the rookies would solve them with their eyes closed, or so tedious that attending seminaries sounded like the funniest of the plans.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out who was behind his current tasks. It wasn’t the first time that Vergil used that technique with officers who believed to be better than they were, or simply with the people he didn’t tolerate. In Nero’s case, the message his father was sending was clear: his capacity as a police officer had been called into question, and therefore he had to prove once again he deserved to be assigned a decent case.

Under normal circumstances, the whole office would have heard his curse when the next Monday he discovered a warning on his table, saying that he had to take care of Mrs. Taylor’s Pomeranian which somehow had got lost _again. _By basing on the way Lady and Dante had been looking at him out of the corner of their eyes, it had been evident that they had been expecting some kind of outburst coming from him. However, he simply opened the report, read it, and abandoned the office to take care of the task as soon as possible without letting out a single protest.

Because he knew he had screwed up. He had done it with the police department, and he had done it with V. And although the first thing was something that, with time, he could fix, he didn’t know how he could solve the second, since he had absolutely forbidden to get in touch with the thief, who hadn’t been officially arrested (yet) but was being held in custody.

Of course, Lady and Dante had been ordered not to tell him anything about the case, and much less about V, and for once Nero preferred not to ask either. It wasn’t as if he was going to be included in the case anyway, so learning about an operation where he couldn’t participate would only frustrate him even more. For the time being, the only thing he could do was to perform his duties as good as he could to, perhaps, convince his father that his help was still needed, even if he was pretty sure that by when he was allowed to investigate properly V would be already in jail.

The thought was so depressing that Nero cursed aloud without noticing, causing Dante in the neighbor desk to look at him with a frown.

“You good, kid?”

Nero exhaled a sigh and passed the page of the report he was reading.

“Yeah, awesome”, he answered absentmindedly, his clenched jaw disagreeing with his words.

He missed the way Dante interchanged a look with Lady, and the way the woman shrugged her shoulders a little helplessly, but he heard the way his uncle cleared his throat, something that Dante used to do when he was about to say something stupid or to talk about something he shouldn’t.

Before his theory could be confirmed the door of the main office opened and Dante let out a curse while looking behind them. Nero followed the man’s gaze, and his eyes opened more when seeing Morrison approaching them with a smile.

“What the hell are you doing here, old man?”, Dante smiled widely and patted Morrison’s arm briefly, “weren’t you supposed to be off work the rest of the month?”

“And I am”, Morrison interrupted himself briefly to accept Lady’s careful hug before continuing talking, “but I’ve convinced Patty to let me come to gather some things. I don’t want to die from boredom at home.”

“Oh, you can talk to Nero then”, Lady suddenly commented while situating behind him, placing both of her hands on Nero’s head and her chin on them, “I’m sure he won’t mind to share some of his super thrilling cases with you.”

“Always so good at cheering people, love”, Dante said with irony, causing Nero to exhale a resigned sigh while Morrison chuckled softly.

“I’ve heard about it from the Captain”, he offered Nero an apologetic expression, “I’m sorry to hear it, son. Being removed from a case is always tough."

Nero simply shrugged with Lady still perched on him, trying to rest importance to the matter.

“Yeah, well, the good news is we are on the first floor, so if I jump out of the window I won’t die.”

His self-mocking comment caused Lady to chuckle while separating, not without ruffling his hair first. He was about to concentrate again on the report when Morrison suddenly placed a hand on his shoulder.

“In that case, I guess you won’t mind to interrupt the ‘passionate’ reading to accompany me for a moment, right?”

Nero offered a small smile at Morrison and nodded, glad to have a rest. Nero stretched his arms briefly before beginning to walk after Morrison. Since the last had mentioned he wanted to keep working at home, Nero assumed the man needed his help to carry some of his stuff, so he was surprised when Morrison left his office behind and continued talking through one of the corridors.

“Do you need something from the archive?”, Nero inquired then, his hypothesis soon discarded when Morrison passed by that door as well and continued until they turned the corner.

“Ah, here we are.”

Nero froze when realizing Morrison planned to continue walking towards [holding cells](https://ronethebeatdfw.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/14649893978814.jpg?w=1024&quality=80&strip=all&h=683) area. His sudden stop caused his sneakers to skid on the ground, which made Morrison stop as well to look at him with confusion.

“Is something wrong, son?”

Nero’s eyes briefly shifted towards the small reception situated prior to the cells, behind which there was an officer who had already stopped his advances all the times he had attempted to enter.

“I’m not allowed inside. Orders from above.”

Morrison remained silent for a moment, nodded thoughtfully and then surprised Nero by approaching the reception to talk to the officer.

“Good morning, young man. May I ask for your name?”

“Agent Phillips, sir”, the officer answered promptly with a respectful tone, since there wasn’t anyone in the department who hadn’t heard about J.D. Morrison

“Phillips, Phillips…”, Morrison hummed, as if he was trying to remember something before suddenly clapping his fingers, “oh, the son of Henry Phillips? You’re too young to be Raymond, so you must be Thomas.”

“Yes, that’s right, sir.”

From where he was Nero was unable to hear the conversation that followed, since almost immediately Morrison began to talk in an extremely low tone. However, whatever he said to the young officer made him get pale, then blush, and finally nod effusively before rapidly abandoning the reception to excuse himself to go to the restroom.

“Well, problem solved.”

Nero looked at Morrison, finding this one with a satisfied smirk in his face.

“What just happened here?”

“Nothing at all: I merely commented the young Thomas that some years ago his father showed me some wonderful photographs of his teenager days, and I reminded him that police officers must be careful with their social media since some of those compromising pictures may accidentally spread. I was with my completely innocent dissertation when the agent felt the call of nature”, Nero was still staring at Morrison in stupor when this one signaled towards the cell with his head, as if having somehow-threatened an officer was something perfectly normal to do, “I believe we have around 10 minutes before he comes back, so let’s not waste them.”

Nero followed Morrison a little clumsily, and until he wasn’t inside the cells, it didn’t sink into him that he wasn’t prepared _at all _for the meeting that was about to follow.

* * *

V was about to turn another page of the book he was reading when he heard the door that separated the main office from the holding cells open and close. He was the only tenant of the cells at the moment, so for sure the two people that had stepped inside the area would want to talk to him.

He sighed with resignation and continued his reading, crossing his right leg over his left while keeping lying on the bed. He knew for certain that Nico wasn’t among the visitors because her way of walking (stomping) was rather recognizable. Besides, he had already talked to her that same morning and her visits were limited to two times a week, which meant that he wouldn’t see the woman until Thursday, two days from then.

Also, he had met with Dante and Lady the previous day to prepare the next step of the operation, which meant that most certainly the person who was about to appear at his door was the one he preferred to see less.

“I assume that my fourth petition of having a better bed has been discarded, am I right Chief?”, he ironically said without averting his eyes from his book.

However, instead of the arrogant click of tongue he was expecting to receive from Vergil, he obtained an amused chuckle that definitely didn’t belong to the Chief.

“Thank you for the appellative, son, but I doubt Vergil is willing to renounce to that position.”

V frowned when he didn’t recognize the voice. He lowered his book in order to properly see the newcomer, his eyes opening more in recognition when seeing the man standing there.

“Agent Morrison?”

The man nodded, approaching his right hand to his hat.

“That’s right”, he looked around the cell, “and about that bed, I’ll see what I can do. At least I’m glad to see they moved you to the biggest cell. Did they allow you to have some kind of entertainment?”

V blinked twice and sat up on the bed, planting his feet on the floor while holding his book between his legs.

“Yes, they brought me some of my books last week, and some of my clothes”, V frowned with surprise, “was that your doing?”

Morrison chuckled.

“It’s the least I could for the man who saved my life. And for that…”, Morrison smiled affably and offered him his right hand through the bars, “...I wanted to thank you, son. When all this finishes, I will do my best so that you are given a fair sentence."

After recovering from the surprise V returned Morrison’s smile and stood up in order to accept the man’s handshake.

“I really appreciate it, Agent Morrison. Although I’d prefer you made sure that your Chief fulfills his promise of letting my partner go without charges.”

Morrison nodded after releasing hands.

“Consider it done”, Morrison tucked his left hand inside his trouser, “in exchange, could you do this old man a little favor and listen to the person who is about to come in?”

Morrison stepped aside without letting him ask further. He frowned when hearing Morrison mutter an encouraging ‘Go ahead, son’, and then tensed instantly when someone else hesitantly entered his line of vision.

“Hi, V.”

V’s jaw clenched when hearing Nero’s cautious greeting. Anger immediately settled down, and not just for the officer’s presence but also because his heart had accelerated, ignoring his head that was telling him that from then on, he shouldn’t waste time in getting affected by Nero ever again.

They remained in silence until the distant door closed again, indicating that Morrison had left to give them some privacy. At that moment V exhaled a deep breath, crossed his arms tightly in front of his chest, and raised his chin slightly to answer Nero in the coldest tone he could manage.

“Officer, I’m sure you have been informed about my conditions to collaborate with the police, which includes not having to see you again.”

“Please, V, I know you’re upset—”

“Upset?”, V drawled the word with sarcasm, before huffing softly, “you should work on widening your vocabulary. I doubt that’s the best word to use in this case.”

Nero exhaled a sigh and tried again.

“Okay, I know you hate me”, V felt a pang of satisfaction when his imperturbable expression made Nero gulp, as if he had somehow hoped he corrected him, something he obviously wasn't going to do, “and I also know I shouldn’t be here right now.”

“Indeed, you shouldn’t. And if you don’t wish me to inform your father about this, I suggest you to promptly come back to your duties.”

“I will. But first I needed to tell you that I’m sorry”, Nero looked honestly regretful, but by then V refused to believe anything Nero said, no matter how sincere it could sound, “what happened two weeks ago I—I didn’t want that. I didn’t know that my father was planning to arrest you, or that he would use that report to do so.”

V gritted his teeth.

“You mean _your _report?”

The fact that Nero looked like a whipped dog after he put emphasis in that word only served to make him even angrier, since there wasn’t anything that he detested more than someone who didn’t accept the consequences of his actions. If Nero had appeared in front of him and admitted that he had used their relationship to catch him, he would still hate the officer for using such a dirty trick, but at least he could respect him for facing him head-on.

However, it was evident Nero was going to try to excuse himself, to justify himself, and _that _he couldn’t tolerate it.

“Look, officer, there is no need for all this conscience clearing”, V said with a reassuring tone full of sarcasm, “you only did what you had to do. Your job was to catch me, and mine was to avoid that from happening. We were in opposite sides from the very start, and you happened to use all the weapons you had better than me. That’s all.”

“No, that’s _not _all”, Nero insisted, grabbing one of the bars tightly, “you’re right that it started as a job, but as time passed I—”

“Please, spare me the ‘_it came to mean something else’ _part”, V intervened with annoyance, refusing to hear the officer say something along those lines as if he really meant it, “I assume this is the first time you are ordered to get intimate with a suspect in order to gather information, and that probably your naivety is making you feel guilty because of it.”

“V, I didn’t—”

“But it’s alright, officer”, V made sure to give his tone all the casualness he could gather before continuing, “I won't lie: part of me regrets it had to end. Not many partners have been able to leave me so satisfied, and I wouldn’t have minded to play around a little more, but it’s not such a big deal. And lack of professionalism aside, it was a nice way to kill the time while it lasted.”

V was expecting that Nero’s ego ended a little wounded, not the way his eyes opened more in stupor before saying the next words.

“A way to kill time. That’s all what it was for you?”

V half-closed his eyes while tilting his head to the side.

“What else do you think it was, Nero?”, the name escaped him by accident, so he made sure to fix the mistake with a light surprised chuckle before speaking with amused disdain, “so that’s why you have come to apologize? Because you were afraid of having broken my heart?”

Nero’s silence said it all, which only made V feel a new pang of frustration for having actually fallen for someone who had himself in such a big pedestal. However, he didn't let it show. He simply forced another chuckle out of him, longer than the previous one, while taking a step towards Nero.

“Well, you can be at ease, officer. I guarantee you that your presence in my life wasn’t as meaningful as you seem to believe. Having you after me was a nice entertainment, but…”, he grabbed the bar next the one the officer was grabbing, while digging his eyes on Nero to harshly spell the next words, “...I need a little more than a pretty body and a decent cock to fall for someone. Especially if that someone can take my freedom away from me, as it has eventually happened.”

A tense silence fell next, and then Nero talked with an unconvinced tone V didn’t like one bit.

“So that means you say your real name to all the people you play around with?”

V suppressed a gulp. He hadn’t expected the quick comeback, but he managed to sustain Nero’s gaze before proceeding to lie again, not having to put much effort into sounding annoyed.

“Only to the ones whose trust I want to obtain. And I confess I thought it had worked when you left me escape that night, but you turned to be even more manipulative than me. And I mean it as a compliment.”

V expected that his words finally put an end to that conversation, but the way Nero’s face changed took him completely by surprise. The sad disappointment in his expression was so real that, for a moment, V was about to regret saying those words. But then V remembered that he was in that situation for having trusted Nero when he shouldn’t, for not reading the officer as well as he thought, and surely that’s what was happening now. It had to be that.

At that moment the sound of the door opening was heard again, followed by Morrison’s voice.

“Son, we should go.”

Nero nodded absentmindedly, his blue eyes still fixed in V. The officer took a deep breath, gulped thickly, and talked with a voice that sounded slightly strained.

“I know that this means shit right now, but I’m sorry everything ended like this. And although I can’t participate in the case, when the deal you have with the police ends and you have to be judged, I’ll stand by you in any way I can.”

V blinked twice but rapidly his eyes ended half-closed skeptically, since he hadn’t expected the comment and didn’t understand it either.

“I already told you that I don't need your apologies, and neither your help. So, if you are doing this because you wish to feel better with yourself—”

“I’m not.”

“Then why?”

“Because for me it meant something, and it still does.”

V barely registered the ‘_Goodbye, V_’ that Nero muttered before disappearing from his view. He kept staring at the spot where the officer had been a moment ago, his fingers still grabbing the bar so hard it actually hurt when he finally let it go. He also released the breath he’d been holding since Nero surprised him with that confession, and after gulping he returned to the bed.

He lay on it facing up for several minutes, without doing anything but staring at the ceiling, allowing his thoughts to run free for a while. Then, he recovered the previous book he had left there and forced himself to resume his reading, decided to forget the last thing Nero had said.

Until then he had been doing wonderfully by self-convincing himself that Nero hadn’t been that important, that the officer only deserved his distrust and hate from then on, and he planned to keeping doing so. Because _that _was infinitely simpler than acknowledging that those annoying feelings were still there, or that he actually sought to believe that what Nero had said was the truth.

* * *

“So that’s how you stand those horrible cases, huh? Not a bad technique, kid.”

Nero assessed a last brutal punch to the bag hanging from the ceiling and turned around while panting in order to face Dante, who had barely entered the [gym](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/12/85/3d/03/boxing-ring-in-the-gym.jpg).

After the disastrous visit to V, he had eventually accompanied Morrison to his office to help him eventually carry some things the old man would need during his time off. He was grateful that Morrison pretended not having heard that last part of his conversation with V, since the moment they left the cells he brought up a random topic without mentioning his depressed mood at all. He accompanied Morrison to his car, left the box stuffed with documents in the trunk, and just then the detective patted his back while saying a comforting ‘_everything will get better_’ that made Nero force a smile, even if at the moment he doubted the veracity of those words.

After Morrison left, he had tried to get back to work but he had been unable to concentrate. He had even skipped lunch to go directly to the gym. He needed to release all that pent-up frustration that menaced to explode. And it was working. That constricting feeling kept curling in his chest, and he doubted it was going to disappear any time soon, but at least he didn't feel the need of breaking whatever thing he came accross anymore.

“Yeah, I learned it from the best”, he said with irony, resuming his punches while his uncle leaned his back against the column next to the hanging bags with his arms crossed.

“Definitely”, after observing him in silence for a few seconds, Dante talked in a low tone so that the other people of the gym didn’t hear them, “the talk didn’t go well?”

Nero made half a dozen of more punches before stopping. He exhaled a deep sigh and shook his head with his jaw clenched. He didn’t even ask Dante how he knew about him visiting the cells. By then he was already used to his uncle knowing more than he should.

“I shouldn’t have gone”, he removed his gloves and dried his forehead with the bottom of his tank top, catching in the air the bottle of water Dante threw at him, “I shouldn’t have been in this case to begin with.”

He took a long sip and recovered his towel from the horizontal rope where he had left it. He walked towards the changing room with Dante following him.

“Well, I’m not so sure about that, since your dad wants to see you now because of it.”

He snorted, finishing removing his t-shirt to throw it inside his private locker.

“Let me guess: he had learned I’ve visited V and he will give me even more interesting cases.”

“No, he wants you to take a look at the information we’ve been gathering about it.”

Nero stopped when he was about to close the locker to look at Dante with his eyes opened more.

“You mocking me?”, he blurted out, causing his uncle to shake his head with a smirk.

“Nope. It seems that your work of these two weeks has paid off and he wants to give you another chance. He’s waiting for you in his office”, Dante patted his shoulder, “congratulations, kid. It seems you’re in again.”

Nero didn’t react for the first few seconds, simply standing there while waiting for Dante to suddenly tell him it was all a bad joke, which for sure would cause him to punch his uncle because he wasn’t in the mood for that kind of bullshit.

However, when Dante’s expression kept being serious but satisfied, he finally assumed that it wasn’t some kind of trick: he had been asked to participate again in the case. He exhaled an incredulous laugh and then frowned at Dante with suspicion.

“Okay, what did you do?”

His uncle snorted exaggeratedly, placing his hands on his hips.

“Look, I know this is an unpopular opinion but I’m not _always _involved in everything, you know?”, Nero kept looking at him in the same way when Dante quickly signaled with his head towards the showers, “come on, brat, take a quick shower and go to see your papa. You know how much he hates to wait.”

Dante was about to leave the changing rooms but Nero stopped him by grabbing his arm, causing his uncle to look at him.

“Thank you”, he said sincerely, which provoked Dante to chuckle before shaking his head.

“Keep that for Verg. He sucks at showing it but he actually cares about you, you know?”

Dante winked at him and abandoned the room by approaching two fingers to his forehead. Nero observed him leave and then rapidly ran towards the showers, not wanting to risk that his father changed his mind for taking too long in meeting him.

Five minutes later he was already knocking at Vergil’s door, properly dressed again and with his short hair almost dry. He was about to knock again when the door opened and he found himself face to face with Nico. Nero suppressed the urge to gulp when her expression twisted into one of disgust when seeing him. In fact, he got ready to rapidly cover his groin in case she made any suspicious movement with her knee but the woman simply huffed and passed him by, purposely bumping against his shoulder when she did so.

“A temperamental woman”, Vergil commented with certain amusement from his desk, and Nero found himself nodding in agreement.

He closed the door behind him and approached the desk, remaining standing in front of it as Vergil finished placing some documents inside a folder. The Chief placed the last over a good pile and then finally looked at him. He couldn’t help to tense when that happened, since the last time he and his father talked it almost came to blows. However, the Chief’s tone when talking didn’t show any kind of reproach anymore, which didn’t stop Nero from keeping being in alert.

“I’m sure Dante has already filled you but I will do so in more detail”, Vergil placed a hand over the pile of documents of this desk, “this is all the information we have gathered about that woman who presumably is behind the two robberies Red Grave has suffered in the past two months: who she is, the cases she is involved, and everything else Ms. Goldstein, Dante and Detective Arkham have managed to find. There are also details of the operation we are planning to carry out in the following days in order to catch her. You must thoroughly study everything, since the opinion of a third party who hasn’t been directly involved in the searching process may be beneficial for us. However…”

Vergil’s tone turned warning, and it told Nero what the man was going to mention before he did.

“...your prohibition to get in touch with Mr. Vitale still stands. You will only investigate these documents and under no circumstances you will participate directly in the operation. Have I made myself clear?”

“Crystal clear, sir”, Nero promptly said without the least hint of hesitation. He was about to reach for the documents when noticing the expression of stupor Vergil was displaying, and such a sight was so weird to see that Nero found himself forgetting for a moment where he was, “uhm...dad, are you okay?”

Vergil seemed to remember at that moment that displaying that kind of expression didn’t suit him at all because he shook his head to recover his usual imperturbability. However, the fact that Vergil didn’t mention anything about his slip when addressing him showed the man was still partly shocked.

“I think this is the first time you accept one of my orders without childishly protesting.”

Nero opened his mouth to do exactly that, which provoked him to snort softly and scratch his head.

“Maybe because it’s the first time that I fuck everything up so much”, he found himself admitting, which again caused Vergil to blink before looking behind Nero, which made the last frown.

“I was only checking that Dante is not recording any of this”, Vergil merely explained, causing Nero to open his mouth to exhale an offended snort.

“Hey, I don’t have any problem in admitting when I’ve screwed up!”

“Perhaps not with others, but you don’t usually recognize it with me.”

Nero opened his mouth to retort back against that claim but eventually remained silent, realizing that Vergil may have a point. After all it had always been difficult to live up to his father’s high expectations, and especially when being younger he had justified his mistakes with that kind of argument more times than he’d like to admit.

“Maybe because I don’t usually screw up”, Nero eventually said, causing Vergil to lift a skeptic eyebrow even if Nero would swear a hint of amusement had been about to settle in his expression.

“It was definitely a good idea not to assign Dante as your superior. That kind of attitude is completely his.”

Nero didn’t do anything to deny it, taking a sit in front of Vergil when the man signaled it briefly with his eyes. Automatically his knees began to bounce up and down, but he stopped the movement before his father’s eyes shifted towards them, as every time the nervous gesture escaped him.

“So, can I ask what’s the motive for your good predisposition despite being given such a minor role in the case?”

Unlike other times in which Vergil formulated questions whose answer the man already knew, this time his father sounded honestly curious, which made Nero exhale a deep breath before beginning to talk about something he had been planning to bring up, even if he hadn’t found the moment to do it.

“The day V was arrested, you said I hadn’t taken the job of catching him seriously, because I left him escape every chance I had”, Nero gulped and met his father’s gaze, “you were right. And each time it happened, I always told myself that the next time would be different, but it never was. I was stupid enough to think that loving V wouldn’t stop me from doing my work, but I was wrong. I chose both, and everyone ended losing. Two people even died as a result.”

Nero gulped when his tone was about to fail him at the end and averted his eyes towards the floor, his hands turning into fists on his knees.

“I can’t do anything to fix that. And I can’t do anything to prevent V from ending in jail. But if there is something I _can _do to help you catch that bitch, whatever it is, _anything_…”, Nero looked at Vergil again, “...I will do it. This time, without fucking it up.”

Vergil remained silent after he finished talking, and when his father intervened it was to mention the last thing Nero had expected.

“Loving V?”

Nero’s heart skipped a beat when Vergil said that, clearly repeating his own words. He hadn’t honestly realized he had expressed his feelings for V in that way. He had been so focused on the explanation that the verb had slipped by accident, but he guessed there was no point in denying it. He knew it was stupid to keep feeling that way for V when this one had only considered him a simple entertainment, but those feelings had been harboring for a while so they weren’t going to disappear from day to day.

So, he answered Vergil’s question by nodding with a helpless shrug, which caused his father to exhale a sigh while rubbing his temple with his fingers.

“I cannot believe that Dante is the only member of this family with a minimal common sense in the relationships department.”

A chuckle was about to escape Nero when hearing his father’s mortified tone.

“Don’t worry: there won’t be another criminal stain in the Sparda Family record.”

He realized too late that it had been a mistake to make a joke about his current situation with V when their ‘breakup’ was so recent (even if he doubted it could be called that way), since the frustration in his voice was too obvious, which surely provoked Vergil to intervene again.

“Well, for sure prison can really complicate a relationship”, Vergil leaned more against his chair, distractedly tapping on the surface, “unless that isn’t the main motive of your...separation.”

Nero gulped, daring to throw another look at Vergil ready to see reproach in his look. But again, there was only honest interest in the Chief’s eyes. Damn, if someone had told him that same morning that he would be talking about his romantic situation with his father he wouldn’t have believed it. But there he was, because against all odds the mood that had settled between them that day was one of the most comfortable he had got in years, which prompted him to talk again.

“We weren’t in the same page, that’s all”, he fixed his eyes on his grandmother photography on the table, the same that Dante also had in his desk, not to look directly a Vergil when admitting the next bit, which hurt quite a lot, “as you said, we were just fooling around, and it was me the one thinking it was something else.”

Vergil remained silent for a moment.

“Did Mr. Vitale tell you that himself?”

Nero simply nodded, realizing too late that by doing that he had basically confessed he had visited V. He was already waiting for the reprimand to come when two soft knocks sounded at the door and the Captain entered, stopping at the frame with a surprised expression when seeing them there.

“Is everything okay?”

The caution Trish was displaying made Nero smile reassuringly at her, since it made him remember all those times when as a kid Trish had remained behind, offering silent support as he sulkily got to see Vergil to apologize for something he had done.

“Yeah”, Nero rapidly stood up and grabbed the folders resting on Vergil’s desk, shaking them enthusiastically while looking at Trish, “I finally have actual work to do.”

“Are you perhaps insinuating that my recent assignments weren’t worth it enough?”

Nero froze for a moment when hearing Vergil’s comment. He turned around slowly, afraid to be removed from the case again, but then he noticed that there was a hint of irony his father’s serious expression, which made him use an excessively horrified tone.

“Of course not, Chief. I wouldn’t dare to suggest something like that.”

Vergil half-closed his eyes at him and clicked his tongue, simply signaling at the door with his head to indicate he was dismissed. When Nero turned around to leave the room, Trish was still there, smiling in clear relief after he and Vergil managed to sort things out. Since both of his hands were occupied with the heavy folders, it was her the one who opened the door for him. He was already in the process to leave when, oh surprise-no-surprise, Vergil stopped him by calling his name.

He looked back, already expecting Vergil’s usual final warning, but frowned when seeing _his father_ hesitating before talking

“I keep my posture that having caught Mr. Vitale sooner would have probably prevented those casualties. However, the fact that he was there that night has allowed us to gather useful information about that woman, which would surely prevent her from provoking more unnecessary deaths in a future.”

Nero looked at his father in silence, not very sure about what the man was trying to convey, which prompted Trish to intervene with a soft tone.

“I think your father is trying to say that you shouldn’t feel guilty for what happened to those agents.”

Nero’s eyes opened more when hearing Trish. He looked at his father again, finding this one glaring at the woman.

“I doubt my explanation was in need of a clarification, Captain.”

Far from looking frightened, Trish’s expression was the living image of innocence while smiling at Vergil after this one talked with a _slightly _sulking tone. As usual, the woman’s lack of concern only served to annoy Vergil more, which provoked the last to look at Nero again with unjustified reproach.

“Why are you still here, officer? I remind you that time is pressing and that I’m expecting an initial report at my table by the end of the day, so you better work fast.”

“Yes, sir”, Nero said rapidly, a small smile escaping him before spelling the last words, “and thank you.”

The last thing he heard before the door closed behind him was his father clicking his tongue again and Trish muttering a fond ‘goodbye’. He quickly returned to his table, dropped all the files loudly on it, and didn’t waste time in getting to work. With a little luck, the fact that he had to get a good grasp of the situation in mere three hours would keep him concentrated enough so that V stopped being the center of his thoughts.

* * *

** _Some hours before_ **

“You know, Verg, I’ve been thinking...”

“And you got a headache because you aren’t used to it. Worry not, brother: that’s logical.”

Dante didn’t let that his brother’s remark dissuaded him from keeping talking. During those two weeks he had been debating himself between having that conversation with Vergil or not, but the face that Nero had brought when coming back with Morrison from the cells made him make his mind.

“...And I just realized there was something curious in the way you carried out V’s interrogation.”

Vergil simply hummed, still focused on the letter he was writing because yeah, his brother belonged to the category of old-fashioned people that believed that technology was destroying the good traditions.

“Which is?”, his brother eventually said with a light impatient tone when Dante made a purposely theatrical pause.

“Which is that telling V about that report was totally unnecessary. If you planned to use his accomplice’s freedom against him in order to force him collaborate, what was the point of letting him know all that about his past? It wasn’t as if we could use it against him anyway.”

Someone who didn’t know the Chief well enough would think the man hadn’t changed his expression, but Dante noticed the brief stiffness in Vergil’s shoulders even if it couldn’t last more than a second. Not in vain he had spent more than 40 years standing his brother after all.

“Certainly, we couldn’t, but it served to let Mr. Vitale know who had the upper hand in the conversation.”

Dante snorted, shaking his head lightly.

“Good try, Verg”, he approached the desk to lean his palms on the table, ending a little hunched, “but we both know that it wasn’t the only reason.”

Vergil exhaled a long sigh before finally raising his face from the paper to look at him with annoyance.

“Dante, you know how much I dislike preambles, so establish your point already or leave to have some proper work done for once.”

“It was for Nero”, _jackpot_, he thought when, this time, Vergil was unable to prevent his jaw for clenching, “you wanted the kid to stop getting involved with V, so you implied that he had been using their relationship to gather information about him.”

“Please, do not call ‘relationship’ to what those two had.”

“Why not?”, Dante pressed, stopping leaning on Vergil’s desk to drop on the chair with his arms and legs crossed, “it’s what it was. A rather uncommon one, yep, but you and I have seen weirder things.”

Vergil clicked his tongue, also reclining back but keeping a straighter posture.

“Indeed, we have. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to approve that my son gets intimate with criminals.”

“You mean you don’t want he follows your steps?”, the murderous glance Vergil threw at him caused Dante to exhale a laugh and raise his hands conciliatory, “okay, okay, it was a joke, don’t kill me. But now for real, I really don’t think that the guy is that bad for Nero.”

“I guess this is another one of your poor jokes.”

“It’s not. I mean, think about it: the guy is polite, cultivated, classy, tough…”

“...and steals as a living.”

“Bah, everyone has their flaws.”

“You _can’t _be serious.”

“Come on, Verg, I know you don’t dislike The Poetic Burglar that much. The people he steals from is the same people you’re always complaining about.”

“Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean he’s good enough for Nero.”

“Verg, _no one_ is _never_ good enough for Nero. You’re _that _kind of father.”

“I disagree: I’m a perfectly normal father who wishes his son to have a normal relationship.”

“Okay, so then you’d prefer that Nero was with someone like Kyrie?”

“For god’s sake, _no_.”

“Hah! See? Now V isn’t such a bad option.”

“Dante, _anyone _would be a better option than that dull woman.”

“Poor girl. She wasn’t _that _bad.”

“You only say that because you didn’t stand a whole dinner with her. Even a plant would offer a more significant conversation than her.”

Dante couldn’t prevent a laugh when hearing Vergil’s quite heated comment, before adopting a more serious tone.

“Look, I get your reservations with V. I really do. I just say that I doubt those two were merely fooling around", Vergil raised a skeptic eyebrow, "come on, I watched the interrogation tape: the guy looked totally devastated when thinking that Nero had betrayed him, and so did Nero when V was sent to the cells.”

“Well, as you say Mr. Vitale is quite tough. He will get over it and, what truly matters, so will Nero when his teenager crushes passes because that’s what it is: a passing crush.”

He exhaled a resigned sigh when hearing Vergil’s definitive tone.

“As hard to crack as usual, bro. You never disappoint”, he ironically said, standing up from the chair and causing Vergil to blink once.

“So the only motive of your visit was to convince me that your nephew’s best romantic candidate is that thief?”

“Nope, that was just one motive. The second is that you should give Nero another chance and let him participate in the case”, he raised his hand conciliatory when seeing Vergil was about to argue against it, “I’m not saying you involve him directly, but during these two weeks he has worked harder than anyone else when we both know he had motives for throwing all those shitty cases at your face. Besides, I don’t have to tell you how many times his intuition has helped us. You could really use that.”

Honestly, he had thought that it would take him more to convince Vergil, but for the way the man exhaled a long sigh and reluctantly nodded to himself, it seemed that he had given some proper consideration to the matter before Dante mentioned it.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt that he examines everything we have gathered.”

Dante barked a triumphant laugh while palming his hands once.

“That’s my bro: cold outside but a big softie inside”, he gulped when, this time, Vergil’s glare looked even more murderous than usual, which made him clear his throat while signaling towards the door with his thumb, “w-well, I will tell the kid that he comes to talk to you, ‘kay?”

Dante walked (ran) towards the exit and closed the door rapidly, not wanting to risk that his brother reached for the weapon he always kept in his drawer. Once safely outside he let out a deep breath, and was about to go see Nero when he spotted Nico talking to Trish outside the woman’s office.

He distractedly answered the girl when this one greeted him with a natural ‘_Yo!_’. He was barely aware of the woman knocking and entering Vergil’s office without waiting for the man to give her permission, since his attention was more focused on the Captain, who after an initial moment of hesitation approached him with her arms crossed.

“It seems that Vergil is quite satisfied with her work”, she commented in a conversational tone, “otherwise I doubt he would allow her to go around the department so freely.”

It took him a moment to react. Last time he and Trish ‘talked’ he had ended with a black eye, and since then the woman had ignored all his attempts of conversation and calls.

“Yeah, he is quite impressed with her skills, although obviously showing it would be too anti-Vergil.”

Trish nodded, her expression suddenly softening.

“Did you manage to convince him about letting Nero in the case again?”, she chuckled when seeing his dumbfounded expression, “you’ve spent the whole week worried about him, so it was just a matter of time that you decided to do so.”

Dante exhaled an impressed chuckle.

“Yeah, I did. But damn, I didn’t know I was that obvious.”

Trish looked at him in _that _way that always reminded him the woman knew him better that he did himself.

“You aren’t.”

It was a simple answer, but it was enough to let Dante know that, no matter how angry Trish could have been with him, she still cared, and she still paid attention. So, when she began to turn around to come back to her office, he caught her arm in an impulse.

“Trish”, the fact that he called him by her name instead of the usual ‘love’ or ‘sweetheart’ made the woman look at him with her eyebrows raised, “about the other day, I’m sorry. And I’m sorry about what happened with Nevan. I should have never gone to see her. Shit, I don’t even remember what happened, and I know that the excuse of being drunk only makes it worse, but—”

“It’s okay, Dante. Really.”

The fact that Trish didn’t sound upset but just resigned when interrupting him caused Dante to frown in confusion.

“It is?”

Trish nodded, softly disentangling her free from his arm to fully face him.

“These weeks have allowed me to think, and I’ve realized you had no reason to apologize. After all we weren’t together anymore at that time, which means you could be with whoever you wanted. So, I’m sorry for the punch, and also for trying to force you to compromise when everyone knows that Dante Sparda is a free soul. I knew you were like that when we started dating, and you never pretended to want anything else than something informal, so I don’t have the right of blaming you for it”, Trish offered him a soft smile, “so rest at ease, Dante: if I ever catch you flirting with young rookies again, I promise I won’t use my position to assign you the worst cases.”

Dante observed Trish turn around to leave, initially not moving while assimilating the woman’s words.

If some months ago Trish had said all that, Dante would have felt relieved. After all, when Trish suddenly proposed him almost a year ago, he had frozen on the spot, since one of the things he most loved about his relationship with Trish had precisely been the freedom they had. He had thought they wanted the same, but as years passed by she began to need more. And when Dante’s fear and incapacity of compromise came afloat, they had to eventually part ways.

So yeah, he should feel glad that Trish had accepted he wasn’t ready for formalizing their relationship. But now, he was feeling the exact opposite, because Trish had just sounded as if she had already accepted their story had ended. And _that _was the last thing he wanted.

Dante didn’t know yet what to say, but what he _did _know was that he wasn’t letting Trish go. Not that way. So, when she was about to enter her office, he rapidly approached her, spun her around and grabbed her face in his hands to kiss her with intensity.

He felt Trish gasping in surprise during the kiss, and her hands sneaking between them to settle against his chest. She was giving him contradictory messages, her hands pushing him as if she wanted him to go, but her lips demanding, encouraging him to stay and deepen it more. And damn, he wanted to. He wanted to push her inside her office, to clear her table in that movie-like way he had always wanted to mimic, and to complete what was left unfinished that night two weeks ago.

But it wasn’t the moment for that. So, when he felt that Trish was unconsciously beginning to pull him in inside the office, he broke the kiss to lean his forehead against hers, both panting slightly before Dante whispered the next words against her lips.

“Of course I have to apologize. And of course I deserved that punch. What I _don’t _deserve is asking you for another chance, not after fucking everything up despite all the opportunities you’ve given me. So, I'd understand that you had finally grown tired of me, of us. And if that’s the case and you really want to turn page to find someone truly worth of you, I won’t interfere. But if, despite everything, you decided to trust me once more, I promise to show you I can become half of that man you deserve to have by your side. So please, Trish…”, he placed his hands on hers, still lying against his chest, “...please, don’t be easy on me so easily.”

After a short silence, Trish let out the air she had been holding while he talked and looked at him with amusement.

“_Just_ half of the man I deserve?”

Dante shut his eyes closed for a moment, realizing he could have definitely phrased that part better.

“Yeah, well, I preferred not selling myself too high for once”, Trish began to laugh, allowing him to feel the small shakes because of their contact, “so? What do you say?”

It was his turn to hold his breath while Trish exhaled a sigh, and to release it when she nodded with a charming smile that didn’t bode well.

“Alright. If you are so willing to pay for having slept with that witch, I have some fresh cases at my desk that no one wants to take care of.”

Dante smirked widely.

“I couldn’t ask for more, Captain.”

His honestly happy comment caused Trish to chuckle again after rolling her eyes. They stayed there, looking at each other, and Dante was hesitating between kissing her again or not when Lady gasping loudly from the corridor took the decision for him. He exhaled a defeated sigh and turned around to see the woman standing there, with her eyes and mouth open wide.

“O-Oh, fuck, uhm…”, she shook a folder with an apologetic smile, “…I guess it’s a bad moment to give you the report, right Captain?”

“Seriously, love, you had to be punctual just now?”, Dante said with irony, causing Lady to bite her bottom lip in a clear attempt of muffling her laughter. At that moment Trish finally separated from him and after pushing her hair back she composedly asked Lady to enter her office.

The woman entered (rapidly making a thumbs-up gesture with a wide smile behind Trish’s back) and at that moment the Captain turned towards him. He wasn't execting anything else than an amicable goodbye, so he was surprised when Trish deposited a quick peck on his lips before entering her office.

Dante had to really fight the grin that threatened to split his face in two while searching for Nero. However, he made sure to keep his usual attitude when meeting his nephew in the gym. It wasn’t the time to share with the kid the good news of him having managed to decently fix things with Trish. Not when the guy was so obviously heartbroken.

However, that wouldn’t be for long. Because no matter what Vergil said, or what painful punishment his loving, sadist brother would impose on him for stepping where he shouldn’t, he felt those two were meant to be together, and would do whatever it was in his hands to make it work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Theoretically this chapter was going to be more intense, since the operation to catch Malphas was going to start, but then that conversation with Vergil happened (I wasn't expecting it turned THAT long) and also the final bit from Dante POV, that again was longer than expected ^^U
> 
> Hope you have enjoyed the chapter despite being a more transitional one and stay tuned for the next <3 <3 ^^


	17. Change of plans

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is, without a doubt, the one who has costed me more to write, so I hope it's not too confusing because a lot of things take place ^^U  
Once said that, hope you enjoy the long chapter charged with (_too much_) crazy plot xD

** _Certain terrace in Burrow Market - 12:08 p.m. (A week later)  
_ **

“_Ms. Goldstein, are you positive that that micro is undetectable?_”

“_Goddess, for thousandth time: YES, it is. Like hell if I’m gonna put V in risk with a half-assed work. But anyway, shouldn’t we be using an alias when talking?_”

“_Sorry, love, but that stuff only happens in the movies._”

“_Damn, what a pity. Evil Twin and Softie Twin would suit both of you so much._”

“_Pfffft..._”

“_Jeez, Lady, you’re supposed to be on my side! And now seriously, maybe among the two I’m not the scariest, but can’t we both be badasses?_”

“_Nope._”

“_Caw! Caw!”_

“_Great. Not even the damn bird agrees— **ouch**!_”

“_Careful, dude: the chicken is very sensitive._”

“_Shall I remind all of you that we are in the middle of an operation?_”

“I cannot believe I agree with the Chief”, V suddenly intervened with a resigned tone, adjusting his sunglasses before reaching for the drink he had ordered while sitting in that pub terrace.

He took a small sip, refraining himself from looking towards the alley of the opposite street. Nico’s van had been strategically parked there, after being adequately equipped for surveillance so that the others could monitor everything. Ten minutes had passed since the appointed time and there was no sign of Malphas yet. V wasn’t surprised about it though. If he was in her place, he would want to make sure that they were alone in the meeting, as he had promised they’d be.

The same way, he would have taken his time investigating her. That was the reason why three days ago, once Nico finally figured out how to contact the slippery woman, V had come back to his ‘normal’ life in order to make sure that, in case of being followed, Malphas wouldn’t suspect he was working with the police.

Needless to say, several cameras had been installed in his apartment to control he wasn’t preparing any kind of flight. Also, the only time when he had gone outside to buy groceries he had been under strict surveillance, with a previous proper warning to the police, and with an incognito police car discreetly following him, and also a police officer disguised as civilian pretending to be shopping in the same place.

V understood the precautions, but they were completely unnecessary, since he wasn’t going to risk making a new mistake that caused Nico to be arrested as well. He had already resigned himself that when his collaboration with the police finished, he would spend some time in jail, at least until Nico and he figured out a way to get him out wherever he ended locked in. Because obviously, planning any kind of escape plan with Nico during those three weeks had been beyond impossible, since they had always been accompanied during their meetings and, unlike Nero, Vergil and Dante _never _lowered their guard.

The thief sighed, frustrated that his thoughts kept surprising him by diverting towards the officer. He hadn’t talked to Nero again since that surprise visit at the cells. He had only seen him once by passing, when he left the police department and took a glimpse of the officer working on his desk, looking really concentrated. As if he had sensed his presence Nero had automatically looked towards him. His eyes had met for a moment before V rapidly averted them, feeling equally relieved and annoyed that Nero hadn’t made any attempt of approaching him, which surely indicated that Nero’s final words when abandoning the cells had been, again, a lie.

At least, this time it didn’t cost him much to push Nero away from his thoughts, since his eyes immediately diverted towards the tall, feminine figure that was just approaching from the close crosswalk, and which caused him to tense instantly.

“I have visual at my ten”, V discreetly commented after approaching the cup to his lips to better dissimulate he was talking.

“_We see the bitch”, _Nico confirmed with a tone that indicated she really wanted to meet the woman and not precisely to chat.

“_Everyone, hold your positions_”, V heard Vergil say in his usual commanding tone, “_Lady, you and your team get ready to cover the east end of the street. Dante, yours watch over the west, but_ _no one moves until I give the order, understood?_”

“_Roger._”

“_Aye aye, boss._”

While Vergil gave those indications V casually raised his hand to call for Malphas’ attention, causing this one’s smirk to widen while mockingly returning the gesture. His mission was rather simple: to offer the woman a deal difficult to reject to catch her interest and, in the process, to make her admit her last crime so that the police had a sound motive to arrest her. It should be quick and easy, in theory at least. If everything went according to plan, that same night Malphas would be sent to prison, and so would him after his collaboration finally ended. Perfect outcome, he thought self-mockingly just before focusing on the woman stopping in front of him.

He couldn’t help to notice with slight disgust that Malphas’ [fashion](https://www.darkincloset.com/3171-18331-large/punk-rave-black-gothic-punk-broken-hole-chain-tank-top-for-women.jpg) aligned in some way with his, something that Nico didn’t hesitate to point out by muttering a reluctant: ‘_the only good thing about that bitch are her clothes_’.

“Such a lovely place you have chosen to meet, Mr. V”, she took a look around, “a little too crowded for my liking, but still nice.”

V smiled back as the woman took a seat in front of him, crossing one of her long legs over the other.

“I usually prefer quieter places, but given how our previous encounter turned out, I preferred to play safe.”

Malphas chuckled darkly, briefly shaking her head negatively towards the waitress that approached to take her order.

“Well, the fact you are here proves everything turned surprisingly well for you at the end”, she didn’t bother to hide the light annoyance such an outcome produced in her, and neither to be subtle while scanning his [looks](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f7/be/db/f7bedb7285c33eb39c669798c7a96efc.jpg), “you should consider carrying out your next works without any mask though. With that face I’m convinced a lot of doors would open on their own.”

Her comment made V clench his jaw, since he couldn’t help to notice some similarities between that woman’s way of interacting and the one he had with Nero back then. He wondered if the officer had felt the same way than him at that moment whenever they talked: simply wishing everything was over as soon as possible. He knew he shouldn’t care about Nero anymore, but still he couldn’t help to feel ridiculous for having believed to be seducing the officer when, for sure, this one was only counting the seconds to be left alone.

“I meant it as a compliment, Mr. V”, Malphas playfully said, misinterpreting his tension, “what’s wrong: with this lifestyle have you forgotten the basics about flirting?”

V chuckled, removing his glasses and leaving them on his head as an improvised hairband.

“No, I have not. I wasn’t simply expecting that you were interested in someone so young.”

“_HAH! Take that, old hag!!_”

“_Wow, kid, be careful: women can be dangerous if you mention their age._”

“_Ms. Goldstein, Dante, refrain yourselves for making unnecessary comments in this line._”

“_Yeey! For once I’m not the one who is reprimanded~_”

“_Detective Arkham, what have I just said?_”

“_O_-_Oh, shit, sorry boss!_”

V held Malphas’ gaze. The woman didn’t look particularly bothered by the mention of her age, since she chuckled again while raising a conciliatory hand.

“Alright. You are not the kind to mix business with pleasure, I’ll take not of that”, V was already fearing to hear some snarky comment coming from Nico when Malphas continued with a clearly suspicious tone, “and speaking of which, I must say I was surprised when you contacted me. Perhaps I read something wrong that night, but I felt a marked animadversion coming from you, so receiving such a proposal was curious to say the least.”

“_Don’t you say, bitch?! If you hadn’t tried to frame us with those deaths maybe—_”

“**_Ms. Goldstein_**_._”

“Indeed, you interpreted everything wonderfully, Ms. Malphas”, V’s smile kept being in place, and his tone kept sounding composed, which contrasted with his next words, “I certainly don’t like you, and much less trust you. However, you have something I really desire, and in order to get it, I’m willing to make certain commitments.”

V opened his handbag and extracted from it a folder that he placed in front of her. The woman averted her eyes towards it for a brief instant before meeting his eyes again.

“I would be lying if I said I’m not interested in the item you mentioned. However, I find hard to believe you have managed to come up with a plan to steal it. At least, without getting ourselves killed.”

V grabbed his cup again and simply signaled the folder with his eyes.

“You can verify it for yourself.”

Malphas still looked at him for a few seconds while he sipped his coffee, and for an instant V feared that the woman ultimately decided she wasn't _that _interested in what he could offer. But she was, and ten minutes after she opened the folder she was still there: attentively reading the plan he and Nico had elaborated under the police supervision, clearly looking eager to carry it through.

V smiled with resignation, crossed his legs, and waited for the woman to finish reading to finally get that confession out of her, sealing that way both of their destinies behind bars.

* * *

** _Police department - 10:45 p.m. (that same morning)  
_ **

Nero snapped closed Malphas’ report, which he had easily examined six times already, and leaned back against his chair with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He took a deep breath. He was trying to keep calm, but it was difficult when the operation to catch that woman would begin in a little more than an hour and he was there, in the office, racking his brains to discover what the hell they were missing.

By then he was convinced that Malphas couldn’t be working on her own. The same as The Poetic Burglar needed Nico’s support to do the thefts, it was impossible that the woman had carried out all those without any help. However, according to Dante, Nico hadn’t managed to find anything to confirm such theory. She had been thoroughly investigating the woman, consulting sources and people the police couldn’t make use of, and she hadn’t obtained a single clue that lead them to a second party involved with the woman: someone who could have sold her weapons at some point, or provided her with materials, or rented her a transport. There was nothing.

As usual, the only information about Malphas kept being rumors, but besides The Poetic Burglar who had the luck of meeting her face to face, no one had ever seen her. Or, at least, no one dared to say it, which could mean two things: first, she was a superwoman who could carry out an insane amount of crimes without needing any extra help at all, and second, that she was particularly thorough of erasing any trace of the people she had worked with. All the evidence led to those conclusions, and neither of them convinced him.

“It seems someone could use a nap.”

Nero cursed softly when hearing Morrison next to him. He opened his left eye only, catching the old man sitting at Dante’s desk.

“Fuck, old man, you have made me lose 5$.”

“Really? How so?”

“Dante said you wouldn’t last one week at home and I said you would. Shit, couldn’t you wait until tomorrow?”

Morrison chuckled.

“In my defense I have to say that Trish was the one who called me, to try to identify that lady who shot me when they bring her here.”

Nero sighed, opening both eyes while sitting straight on his chair again.

“I hope the operation goes okay.”

Morrison smiled at him reassuringly.

“Don’t worry: if you father has given green light to it, it means that he’s convinced to succeed.”

“Yeah, he is”, Nero sighed, “he says that she’s the priority, and that for now it’s not that important to catch her lackeys.”

“And you don’t agree?”

Nero shrugged.

“I don’t know. I mean, he’s right. And I have zero doubts he can make _anyone _sing, so he won’t have much trouble getting that information from her”, he placed his hands behind his head, in a gesture that Dante made a lot, “but I don’t know, have the feeling that letting a loose end here could be very bad.”

Morrison nodded thoughtfully, and approached his chair to Nero.

“Do you need me to lend an ear?”

Nero hesitated. He didn’t want to bother Morrison, but truth was that in several occasions he had done the same thing with Dante and Lady when they were stuck in a case, and every time they had managed to discover new things that would have been overlooked otherwise. Besides Morrison looked sincerely willing to listen, so after thinking him he decided to use the man’s help.

In order to put his ideas in order, he started summarizing the information the others had got. He first mentioned the identikit they had been able to create thanks to The Poetic Burglar’s description of Malphas, and which allowed them to identify the crimes where she may have been involved. He spent almost twenty minutes setting the proper context, and once all the main points had been established, he finally focused on the things that had caught his attention.

“Here, look at this for example: just in 2007 she carried out three big robberies.”

“Well, the Poetic Burglar has acted twice in Red Grave within a month. It may be complicated to do, but not impossible.”

“You’re right, but the difference is that V—I mean, The Poetic Burglar did it in the same city, and it was something exceptional. But this woman, she had been doing it since she started her activity in 2003. No matter how good you are, that’s a crazy rhythm to keep.”

“And you are confident that she working for a bigger organization isn’t an option?”

“We studied that possibility, but discarded it. She doesn’t have the profile of someone who would follow someone else’s orders, and all the evidence seems to indicate she does everything alone.”

“So, in summary, you don’t think she is working for anyone, but you don’t think she is on her own either.”

“Exactly. Because look at this”, he took a pen and drew a circle around the date of two different cases where Malphas had been supposedly involved, “these were her last works in 2009, just before disappearing for almost 10 years. She planned two different robberies in two different countries in just three days. And okay, one of them wasn’t that big compared with the other, but still it’s _impossible _that she managed to carry out both crimes without help. I mean, to travel from one place to the other, and by taking into account the time difference, she would have needed to prepare _and _carry out the second crime in less than a day. And since she isn’t Flash Gordon and I doubt she can freeze time, it’s impossible that she did it time unless_—_”

Nero suddenly interrupted himself, his eyes open wide and the pen raised in the air, which provoked Morrison to prompt him to continue with a tone full of expectation.

“Unless?”

It took Nero a moment to put in order his thoughts before finally talking again, almost to himself.

“Unless she wasn’t in those two places”, Nero felt that familiar thrill setting under his skin, as each time he was close to discover something important.

“But here it says that she was partially recorded in both incidents”, Morrison commented, reading what was written in the report while Nero reviewed the disorder that his table had become.

“Yeah, in theory she was”, Nero held the two photographs in his hands, so that they could look at them, “but that’s just because we’ve been basing on a wrong assumption all this time.”

During the following minutes Nero exposed his theory. During that time Morrison’s expression showed initially skepticism, then stupor, and finally realization. Another forty minutes had to pass until they could verify some points of Nero’s hypothesis, moment in which they rapidly went to Trish’s office without having to interchange another word.

Nero was the first in stomping inside without knocking, causing the woman to jump startled in her seat.

“Christ, Nero”, she exhaled, settling a hand against her chest while looking at him with a light reprimanding expression, “it better be urgent.”

“It is”, Nero rapidly approached her desk and planted his hands on it, “we have to talk to my father right now. We’ve just discovered something critical for the operation.”

“_He_ has discovered something”, Morrison corrected behind him, something Nero didn’t notice since he was only focused on Trish. The woman had perfectly detected the urgency of the situation because without wasting time she nodded and reached for the telephone of her table, rapidly marking a number. They waited in a tense silence for the Captain to say something, but when she exhaled an impatient sigh Nero knew bad news was coming before she delivered it.

“I cannot contact him. He gave explicit orders not to be disturbed when the operation started, and it did five minutes ago.”

“Fuck”, Nero cursed, frustrated that they had missed it for so little time, and in that case, there was only thing to do, “where are they?”

Trish looked at him for a few, long seconds, because _that _was the only detail Vergil hadn’t wanted to share with Nero, clearly preferring to eliminate the possible temptation of joining them. He was already opening his mouth to justify why he needed to go there, assuming he would need to convince Trish to do so, when the woman reached for her personal mobile this time to type something. Nero felt his mobile vibrate in his pocket less than a second later.

“They are parked in an alley in Burrow Market. I have just sent you their exact location, so be careful to reach the area while avoiding the main district.”

Nero exhaled a relieved sigh and, in an impulse, he leaned forward to kiss Trish in the cheek. He left the room with a hurried ‘_Thank you_’, leaving the Captain behind with her eyes open more in stupor, since he didn’t use to show such open displays of affection.

He heard Morrison wishing him good luck as he rapidly left the police department. He had to reach the others before Vergil gave the order to arrest Malphas, because in the worst case scenario she wouldn’t just escape, but V’s own life would end in danger, and one thing was that he was trying to get over his feelings for the thief, and another that he didn’t care anymore and was going to put him at risk.

* * *

** _Certain terrace in Burrow Market - 12:25 p.m._ **

In order to come up with a proper bait to drag Malphas to the open, everyone had needed to investigate the woman’s (still unconfirmed) crimes to learn what she was interested in. It hadn’t been easy, but at the end they had discovered she felt a disturbing passion for the occult, concretely for demonology, since almost all of the objects she had (supposedly) stolen during her criminal career were related to that ambit.

Once established her area of expertise, the most difficult part began, since they had to search for something that entered that category, that was (or could be) in Red Grave in the following weeks, and that was feasible to steal within that month. It took V and Nico the whole first two weeks to elaborate a proper plan. After all, in order to convince Malphas of their intention of collaborating together, they had to prove they were willing to carry the theft, and the only way to do it was to prepare it for real, or as realistically as possible at least.

Doing that was tedious, and it caused several sleepless nights from him and Nico, but ultimately they managed to present a plan good enough to get Malphas’ attention, since by when the woman finished reading it, her sparkling eyes showed her anticipation to participate.

“Must I assume you are interested?”, V asked unnecessarily, allowing himself to smirk with certain arrogance, and for the way Malphas laughed V knew they had made it. She was relaxed, way more relaxed than when she sat at that table, which meant that it would only take a little push so that she lowered completely her guard.

“Oh, indeed I am”, Malphas extracted the photograph were the item appeared and sighed nostalgically while looking at it, talking next with an impressed tone, “definitely you are way more than meets the eye, Mr. V. Of course I knew of the existence of this item. I’ve been keeping my eye on it for a long time, but I never found the appropriate time to get it”, she looked back at him, “you are really generous: the diary that you want so badly is quite poor compared to this.”

V suppressed the urge of rolling his eyes.

“I would say it’s a matter of taste”, he politely said, refraining himself for speaking his mind about the item that _she_ wanted so badly and whose value he couldn’t comprehend, “however, I presume you have read my conditions in order to seal the deal.”

The mischievous grin in Malphas’ face widened.

“You mean the ‘zero deaths’ condition?”

V simply nodded, his gesture not betraying his heart was beating faster at the perspective of finally getting rid of that woman. He was honestly surprised that Nico hadn’t gasped, or said something ‘_Yes yes yes, we almost have that bitch_’. In fact, everything was too quiet in the line for several minutes. Not that he minded some piece: having everyone talking at the same time was distracting to say the least.

“Yes, that one”, he risked himself to press the woman a little, using a slightly sarcastic tone while lowering his voice, “I’m aware that you do not have particular care for being known as a murderer, but I have a reputation to keep.”

Malphas simply chuckled, shaking her head lightly.

“I could say the same, Mr. V”, she smiled disturbingly, “I also have a reputation to keep, and I wouldn’t like that people began to see me as a softie.”

“Fair point, but ethics aside, in this case killing someone would certainly difficult the job. So it’s your call, Miss Malphas: your bloody reputation, or the item you wish so much.”

“¿Por qué no los dos?”, she mockingly said, but the reluctant sigh she exhaled while storing the photography told V he had convinced her, “fine, no deaths. But just because I raised my personal record to three in my last job.”

Almost there, but not close enough.

“Two”, Malphas raised an eyebrow, “according to the news, Agent Morrison survived.”

The woman snorted softly, reaching inside her purse to extract a cigarette that she lit.

“Did he? Well, I see the old guard keeps being the toughest”, she took a drag on her cigar and exhaled the smoke before continuing, “I must say I wasn’t expecting that The Poetic Burglar would act as the police guardian angel. But if you want a small piece of advice, that’s a kind of reputation that doesn’t work well within our line of business.”

“Thank you for the piece of wisdom: I will remember it for the next time I see someone bleeding to death in front of me.”

Malphas chuckled at his sarcasm, taking another drag before leaning forward to whisper the next sentence cruelly.

“Would it help if I said I was pointing at the head when I shot?”

_That _was enough, V thought at the same time that Dante asked Vergil for further instructions.

“Yes, it has definitely helped.”

V got ready to hear Vergil give the order of arresting the woman after she basically confessed to have shot Morrison. However, no order came, and the words he heard after a moment made him be about to frown with confusion.

“_Mr. Vitale, there’s been a change of plans. Answer the call you’re going to receive and excuse yourself to go.”_

V had barely time to think about the new orders because at that moment his mobile began to sound.

“Excuse me”, he said towards Malphas, who simply nodded without stopping observing him, “yes, Miss Nevan?”

It wasn’t a lie: it was actually Nevan the one who had called, surely because the police didn’t trust that Malphas could be hacking the call in some way and had contacted the woman to collaborate as well. Her boss commented then she needed his urgent help in the gallery, giving him the perfect excuse to leave.

“My apologies, but I’m afraid my other job requires my immediate attention.”

“Of course, Mr. V”, the woman extinguished her cigar in the ashtray and stood up as well while grabbing the folder, “I’ll keep this if you don’t mind. I would like to study the plan more thoroughly before giving you my definite answer.”

V frowned while leaving the money of his drink on the table.

“Does that mean that you are not sure of accepting it?”

“Oh, I definitely want to, but I always like to sleep on it before making any important decisions”, she smirked at him, “but don’t worry, boy: I will let you know my decision tomorrow by noon.”

“_That’s_ _too much time. Demand her to call you in—”_

“Two hours”, V said before Vergil could complete the sentence.

Malphas blinked once, talking next with a light confused tone.

“Excuse me?”

V circled the table and approached the woman, entering her personal space. Her heeled boots made her be slightly taller than him, but that didn’t stop V from whispering the next sentence against her mouth with a polite, calmed tone that exuded authority nevertheless.

“In two hours, you are going to make that call. You don’t need a whole day to review the plan, and much less to think about accepting it. We both know you are truly interested in that object, since you wouldn't have agreed to meet here otherwise. Out of courtesy, this time I will pretend to believe you actually need some time to make that decision. But from now on, please, spare me the unnecessary displays of authority because in this job, miss, I’m the one who calls the shots. And if that does not sit well within you…”, his eyes travelled down briefly towards the folder before digging on Malphas’ eyes again, “...you can always try to do the job by yourself, which would be more beneficial for me. I’m sure that stealing the diary from your belongings when you fail and are arrested would be infinitely easier than going through all this.”

When he finally stopped speaking, Malphas observed him in mute stupor, while silence also reigned in the van until Nico broke it with an impressed ‘_W-Wow…_’. After a few seconds the woman’s eyes shined with anger, but there was also a hint of obvious lust in them that made V smirk while getting even closer until his nose was brushing the woman’s one.

“I will be waiting for your call, Miss Malphas. Have a good afternoon.”

V swiftly separated from the woman, lowered his sunglasses to his eyes again, and abandoned the pub after mockingly bowing his head towards Malphas, having time to hear the woman’s dark chuckles behind him.

He waited until putting some distance between the pub and him before daring to talk.

“What happened?”, V inquired then, approaching the place where he had parked the motorbike.

“_Go to the gallery, kid_”, it was Dante this time, “_everyone is going there now._”

V stepped on the gas pedal more than what it was legally allowed, because there wasn’t anything he detested more than not knowing something when, apparently, everyone else was informed about it.

He arrived at the gallery in less than ten minutes, dismounted the motorbike, and entered the building. Nevan was there, giving some indications to one of the employees. When he entered, she immediately dismissed the employee and approached him.

"They are in the meeting room", she whispered the next words so that only V heard them, "just out of curiosity, dear: after your 'collaboration', will I be able to keep counting with your help?"

V exhaled a soft chuckle, removing his sunglasses.

"Well, it pains me to say this, Miss Nevan, but this 'collaboration' may last for quite a time, so probably you should search for a new assistant."

Nevan sighed a little dramatically and nodded.

"What a pity. Very well, I will", the woman surprised him with a soft kiss on the cheek, "it was a pleasure having you, dear. I doubt I can ever find such a magnificent assistant."

The woman really meant that, so V bowed his head a little towards her with a smile before climbing up the stairs to go to the meeting room, in order to finally learn what on earth was going on.

* * *

** _Certain van in Burrow Market Alley - 12:17 p.m._ **

“_Do you think it will work, Verg?_”

Vergil didn’t answer his brother’s question immediately, his eyes focused on the screen where The Poetic Burglar could be seen talking to that woman, thanks to the street camera that Ms. Goldstein had intercepted and which now she was controlling.

At the end he had agreed on using the woman’s van to do surveillance, since she had already the perfect equipment installed in her workspace area. In fact, the technology she was using was slightly superior to the one the police used, but of course Vergil wasn’t going to give Ms. Goldstein the satisfaction of admitting that.

He waited until Malphas really looked invested in the report to answer. He was opening his mouth to begin to talk when that bird of considerable size that apparently responded to the name of Griffon cawed from the close jukebox.

Vergil threw a warning glance at the animal. The crow fluffed up his feathers and lowered his head from the old jukebox where he was posing, as if he was apologizing. Vergil waited another second to verify the bird wasn’t going to interrupt him before finally replying to Dante.

“It will”, he said with confidence, his tone acquiring a reproachful component, “and I remind you we are in the middle of an operation, detective, so watch your language.”

Dante chuckled at the other side, answering with a conciliatory ‘_Sorry, Chief_’ that was still ironic enough so that Vergil had to suppress the urge of rolling his eyes. He crossed his arms while keeping standing behind Ms. Goldstein, sitting at the keyboard. Since Dante and Lady were keeping an eye on possible escape routes, the only people inside the van were Ms. Goldstein and himself.

It was evident that the hacker was nervous. The way she was biting her painted nails was a proof of it, and also the way she suddenly turned around brusquely to look at him when he merely cleared his throat.

“You could sit down, you know? It’s giving me the creeps to have you behind me, dude.”

“I believe your clear nervous state has another source besides my presence here, Ms. Goldstein.”

“Yeah, but your breathing in my damn head doesn’t help”, she brusquely reached for a cigar and glared at him when he kept looking at her with an impassibility that seemed to irritate her even more, “if you say some bullshit about this being bad for my health—”

“It is bad for your health, but what I was going to point out is that there are several agents ready to act at my word in case she tries to do something suspicious.”

Ms. Goldstein blinked twice, pointing at him with her cigar with a surprised face.

“Are you trying to comfort me?”

Vergil sustained her gaze and then tsked softly, as if the idea was preposterous.

“No. I was merely stating a fact.”

Ms. Goldstein barked a short laugh, and surprised him by suddenly elbowing him in a gesture that would have got her instantly fired if she was actually working for them.

“Hey, maybe Dante’s right and you should be the Softie Twin instead.”

Vergil half-closed his eyes, which only caused Nico to giggle before focusing on the screen again, way more relaxed. He clicked his tongue softly and removed his jacket, since it was beginning to be hot inside the vehicle. He placed it on the back of the empty chair and followed the woman’s previous petition. His eyes were dragged to the screen again, but since at the moment Mr. Vitale was merely waiting for Malphas to finish reading, the Chief’s thoughts began to wander.

He thought once again that in case Ms. Goldstein wasn’t so outstandingly good in her job, he wouldn’t allow her by any means to address him in such a familiar, impolite way, but surprisingly it didn’t bother him as much as it should. In fact, he thought it was a pity that the woman was so faithful to Mr. Vitale and that refused to stay in the force to make proper use to her talent.

Actually, his thoughts about the thief were similar as well. He had a harder time standing the young man in certain occasions, due to his arrogant nature, but Dante hadn’t been entirely wrong when describing the man in his office. Mr. Vitale was in fact very intelligent, and talented. It was a pity that he had decided to choose the path that, when being younger, Dante and him could have taken, and even more catastrophic it was that Nero decided to fall in love with him. Because certainly, his theory about his son being only temporarily infatuated with the thief had lost strength after his talk with Nero, but especially after watching the conversation Nero and Mr. Vitale had shared in the cells, and which had been entirely recorded.

Nero wasn’t aware of this, but Vergil had knowledge of each one of the crushes he had gone through in his puberty, even the ones the boy thought ‘secret’, and even if the young officer had gone through breakups, it was the first time Vergil had caught such an expression of hurt in his son.

After witnessing it, Vergil had gone through an internal dilemma, debating himself between following his first impulse of visiting the cells himself, with the cameras turned off this time, to have a ‘chat’ with Mr. Vitale, or simply letting things take their natural course because, in the long term, it would be beneficial for Nero to forget about the thief. Eventually he had chosen the second. He decided it was better for Nero to forget about that man, to get over the breakup and continue with his life and promising career, instead of involving himself with someone who loved the risk of living in a perpetual tightrope.

Vergil suppressed a light annoyed sigh. There was no doubt that his son was a Sparda: never doing things the easy way. At least, he was glad to see that he was quick to learn from his mistakes. Proof of that was that, with the exception of that visit to the cells, he had been following all his orders to the letter.

“_Chief”, _at that moment he got signal from the team watching the alley from afar to make sure no one approached and revealed their presence, “_an agent has just entered the street, soliciting permission to talk to you. He says it’s urgent._”

Vergil frowned.

“Who is it?”

There was an awkward pause, and Vergil immediately knew the answer before the agent muttered it.

“..._Nero Sparda, sir._”

Vergil gritted his teeth, asked Ms. Goldstein to momentarily cut communication with Mr. Vitale, and answered with a cutting ‘_Make him enter_’ while getting ready to receive his ‘obedient’ son.

* * *

The only reason why Nero didn’t freeze in the spot after seeing his father’s glare was that he was still recovering his air, after having ran for almost twenty minutes because traffic was hellish at that hour and taking a cab to go there had been impossible.

“I know, I know”, Nero hurriedly said, raising his hands conciliatory as his chest kept going up and down laboredly, “I shouldn’t be here but there’s something I need to—”

“Griffon, _attack_!”

When Nico suddenly shouted that, the extremely big crow that Nero had mistaken for a really credible statue came alive and lunged against him. Nero was barely able to cover his face with his arms while kneeling on one knee as the animal fulfilled the woman’s order, using his wings, beak and claws against him.

Fortunately the attack couldn’t last more than a few seconds, since still keeping a calm demeanor Vergil stood up and emptied his own bottle of water on the bird, causing this one to caw and return to his previous spot while Nero rubbed his head in pain, where the bird had hit him with his beak.

“Ms. Goldstein, the next time you use that animal without my permission, it will end in the oven. Have I made myself clear?”

“Roger”, Nico reluctantly said while Griffon cawed in fear, clearly more afraid than Nico for Vergil’s threatening tone.

Nero cursed under his breath, thinking that definitely V knew how to choose his allies. He stood up with certain difficulty, missing the way his father quickly scanned him to verify the scratches he had on his face and hands were superficial before talking.

“Well, officer, I’m eager to hear what’s so important so that you broke a direct order of staying on the sidelines.”

“You can’t arrest Malphas yet.”

Part of Nero was fearing that Vergil answered in his usual sarcastic way, but something in his tone sounded definitive enough so that his father simply frowned with curiosity.

“Why not?”

The long race had allowed Nero to put in order his thoughts, which allowed him to talk clearly and without hesitation.

“Remember that I thought she had an accomplice because her lists of crimes was way too big? Okay, I was wrong. She didn’t need an accomplice because she doesn’t work alone. She never has.”

He reached for the pocket of his trousers and extracted the two photographs that Morrison and him had been examining an hour ago to handle them to his father, who examined them quickly.

“In his testimony V said that the night he met Malphas, she was wearing some kind of weird makeup in her face, concretely two red vertical scars covering her eyes”, Nero signaled at the pictured Vergil was in his hands, “now look at the photographs. See that the marks are different?”

Vergil looked at him again with a skeptic expression that Nero had been expecting.

“Are you saying that that woman has an evil twin? Because in that case, I hope you have something more consistent than a simple change of make-up.”

“I have. There’s a reason why they went inactive for almost 10 years: one of them was gravely injured in 2009, during that robbery in the bank that ended in a gunfire, which forced them to keep an even lower profile until she could be back to business.”

“Once again, Nero, do you have any kind of evidence? Because as far as I know, the only injured at that time were civilians.”

“Yeah, and that’s exactly how Malphas 2 could go unnoticed”, he extracted a new folded paper from his other pocket, “Morrison has needed to make a couple of calls, but we have managed to get the list of all the civilians who were hurt in the incident, together with the gravity of their injuries. We’ve discovered that one of the ‘civilians’ ended in a coma that lasted exactly 9 years, so we sent the identikit to the hospital, which confirmed it was her.”

Vergil remained silent, chewing on the new information while Nero proceeded.

“And that’s not all: that robbery was just the first crime that they did in 2009, which would mean that, while Malphas 2 was left in the hospital, Malphas 1 would’ve needed to travel to the other point of the globe to carry out the second robbery two days later, alone. However, according to the doctor who took care of her, the civilian’s twin sister remained by her side during the following days, waiting for her to wake up.”

Nero waited for the news to sink in during the shocked silence that fell next.

“So they are triplets”, Vergil exhaled a long sigh, “this is like a tasteless joke.”

Nero snorted.

“Yeah, but that’s how they can do so many crimes: while two Malphas carry out the action, a third remains behind the scenes supporting them.”

“Which would also explain why they had to wait until the third sister woke up”, Vergil continued, talking more to himself than to Nero, “for sure the Malphas who was injured was the one pulling the strings.”

“_And_ that means that there is an even clever Malphas behind the jobs”, Nero completed, “hell, we don’t even know with whom of the three V is dealing right now, and if we arrest her now...”

“...we can be letting the actual brain of the crime go”, Vergil exhaled a long sigh, leaving the documents on the table before rubbing his temple, “but still, arresting one sister could allow us to know where the other two are.”

“No.”

Nero hadn’t expected that the word left his mouth so brusquely. He was already expecting the glare coming from Vergil, but surprisingly this one simply looked at him with curiosity.

“Why not?”

Nero opened and closed his mouth, initially trying to come up with a credible excuse, but ultimately deciding to go with the truth.

“Because she will know that V was involved with us, and we don’t know where the other sisters are. One of them could even be pointing at V’s head right now, so if you send Dante and Lady now…”

_...he could die_, he thought but didn’t say, feeling his chest clenching at the perspective. Vergil half-closed his eyes, observing him in silence.

“Are you really suggesting to waste the opportunity of arresting that woman because Mr. Vitale may be at risk?”

Nero gulped, not noticing the way Nico’s attention was exclusively focused on him with sudden interest.

“I’m saying that keeping the farce can allow us to catch not one sister, but the three of them”, he carefully said, sustaining Vergil's gace until this one spoke again.

“You have a point”, Nero felt it was too soon to relax, and his father’s next words proved that his hunch was right, “certainly we have Malphas where we want to, and we could keep exploiting that. But what would you do if I decided to give Dante the order of attacking nevertheless?”

Nero felt his throat go dry, because he couldn’t read what his father was thinking at all.

“I’d ask you to take V out of there first.”

Vergil nodded slowly, pointing his chin at him.

“And if I refused?”

This time, the words escaped Nero without hesitation.

“Then I’d run to that pub to take him out of there myself.”

He spelled the last words with more brusqueness than he thought, but to his surprise Vergil didn’t look as bothered by it as he thought.

“_Verg, the lady has just confessed she has shot Morrison, do we proceed?_”

They looked at the screen at the same time, though Nero’s eyes were dragged to Nico, who suddenly was smiling knowingly at him. He didn’t have time to think about the change of attitude of the woman, since at that moment Vergil sat down again approached his mouth to the microphone. His father exhaled a long sigh, looked at him, and answered while Nero held his breath.

“Dante, Lady, retire immediately but discreetly. We aren’t arresting Malphas yet.”

_“Hah?! Are you serious, boss?!_”

“I’m always serious, Lady. Send both of your teams out and go to the gallery. And you, Dante, contact that girlfriend of yours immediately so that she calls Mr. Vitale right now.”

“_Hey, don’t you dare to call Nevan that way when Trish is around now that we finally—_”

Vergil cut the communication and asked Nico to change to V while Nero heavily leaned against the closest wall, slowly releasing the air as relief invaded him.

“Mr. Vitale, there’s been a change of plans. Answer the call you’re going to receive and excuse yourself to go.”

Nero simply stood there while Vergil contacted Dante and Lady again, not knowing very well if he should stay or not. Eventually he picked the first, since for sure his father wouldn’t have the last trouble of kicking him out of the room in case of not wanting him there.

He very much tried not to focus on the screen, but eventually he couldn’t prevent his eyes from being dragged to V when seeing this one standing up from the terrace table. He insulted himself when the first thing that came to his mind was that V looked as good as usual, and insulted himself some more when the thief approaching that woman too much provoked his hands to turn into fists inside his pocket. Yep, definitely he was dealing with his ‘breakup’ wonderfully, he thought in self-mockery.

“So we’re meeting with the gang, right?”, Nico said, standing up from the chair, “I can drive us there.”

Vergil nodded, turning finally towards him. Nero exhaled then a resigned snort.

“Yeah, yeah, I know: I must come back to the office_—_”

“I want you to stay to explain the others about your investigation”, Vergil raised an eyebrow while Nero’s mouth ended opened in stupor, “unless you want to come back to take care of your pending tasks. I believe Miss Taylor has called again regarding her elusive pet.”

“No no no, I stay. Please.”

Vergil chuckled softly at his vehemence, causing Nico to almost strain her neck to look towards the Chief to witness the unusual sight.

“Very well”, Vergil hesitated before talking again with a slight solemn tone, “you can be proud of yourself, officer. You did an excellent job.”

Nero stared at his father in disbelief for some seconds, and then looked behind him before looking at his father again, who was now frowning with light confusion.

“I was just checking that Dante wasn’t recording this”, Nero smirked at his father’s roll of eyes, adopting a more serious tone when talking next, “and thank you, Chief.”

Vergil tilted his head lightly.

“Why? For letting you stay, or for not putting Mr. Vitale at risk?”

Nero exhaled a nervous chuckle before answering.

“Both.”

Vergil simply hummed, his expression not showing if he was unpleased or not with the answer before joining Nico at the front.

“Oi, sexy cop”, Nero jumped startled when suddenly Nico addressed him, “put yourself comfortable in the sofa. And don’t worry: that chicken won’t attack you again.”

Nero stared at Nico with a dumbfounded expression as the woman winked at him with a smile. He looked at the bird suspiciously when passing in front of him, but as the woman had said, the bird didn’t attack him: he only sat down next to him in the sofa, going as far as rubbing his head against his scratched hand as if he was apologizing for the previous attack.

He stared at the bird in stupor, rubbed his feathers softly with the back of his hand, making it caw softly, and decided that perhaps Dante wasn’t that wrong when claiming that both women _and _animals were too unpredictable living beings.

It only took them some minutes to reach the gallery. Nico parked the van in the building garage and then the three of them (plus Griffon) went to the second floor [meeting room](https://res.cloudinary.com/peerspace-inc/image/upload/q_80,c_crop,g_custom/w_2048/m7ovkxen9hmup7adbvh8.png). Dante and Lady arrived a few minutes later, and it just took V another two to cross the door. Nero really tried to pretend that he was perfectly okay with V’s presence, but when the thief’s eyes stopped on him, clearly showing that the man wanted him out of there, he suddenly wished to be in the office again.

“So, now that everyone is here…”, Vergil said, sitting it the head of the table, “...please, sit down. We have some breaking news you all must know about.”

“So much mystery”, Dante commented with a lightly joking tone, sitting at his brother’s right with his arms crossed on the table while Lady did it at his father's left. Nico commented she was tired of being sitting and leaned against the drawers placed at the end of the room. V chose to sit next to Lady while Nero did next to Dante, which left him exactly in front of V. Griffon had immediately flied to V after this one entered the room, as if he had been missing his owner, and now the bird was posing on the chair arm, rubbing his head against the thief’s arm while cawing in a way that sounded more like a purr.

Vergil offered a pointed look at the bird, causing V to reluctantly hush at the crow softly, making this one remain quite so that the Chief could continue.

“Nero”, Vergil interlaced his fingers on the table, “can you do the honors?”

Nero nodded and proceeded to fill everyone in about what he and Morrison had discovered. While talking, his eyes shifted to everyone in the room, and at some point, he accidentally made eye contact with V. His heart skipped a beat when seeing V looking back at him, his expression imperturbable but his arms crossed in such a rejecting posture that he rapidly shifted back to Lady’s way more affable expression, ignoring the pang of frustration that assaulted him when remembering how comfortable V used to look around him, even if at the end everything had turned to be fake.

When he finished speaking a brief silence settled down, that Dante eventually broke with a whistle.

“Damn, that’s what I call a plot twist”, he said while dropping back against his chair.

“Yep, we have passed from having to catch one criminal to three”, Lady exhaled a nervous laugh before looking at Vergil, “and we have any idea about how to do it?”

Vergil remained silent for a moment and then talked.

“I have been thinking about it in our way here”, Vergil commented with a serene tone that in no way betrayed the content of his next words, “and I’ve determined that the easiest way to catch them is to keep with the theft.”

Nero blinked, thinking to have understood something wrong, but when seeing everyone’s faces of stupor, he realized that no, he had heard it right.

“Uhm…”, Dante was the first one in reacting, “when you say ‘keep with the theft’, I guess you mean that we are going to prepare a fake one, right?”

“No, Dante”, Vergil calmly said, “I’m saying that we are going to carry it out for real. That’s the only way to assure that the three Malphas will be together in order to arrest them.”

Another silence fell in the room, this time broken by Nico’s boisterous laughter.

“Okay, dude, that’s a pretty good one, I have to admit it”, Vergil just needed to turn his face to look at Nico so that this one’s eyes snapped completely opened, “wait, are you fucking serious?!”, Nico’s eyes shifted to V while pointing at Vergil with his index repeatedly, “V, man, _he is fucking serious_.”

“Yes, I see that”, V intervened with a calm that contrasted with the frown in his expression, “and if you really plan to go with that plan I really wish you luck, Chief, because carrying out a suicidal theft wasn’t included in the deal.”

“You have a point, but I’m afraid the situation has changed.”

“Not for me. I did what you ordered: I met with Malphas, and managed to get a confession from her. The fact that you decided to waste the chance to arrest her is your problem, not mine.”

“I must correct you there, Mr. Vitale, but since Malphas is in reality three people, you only fulfilled your role partially.”

“Perhaps, but given that I’m going to end in jail anyway I prefer doing it in one piece.”

“Must I presume then than you don’t mind if Ms. Goldstein ends in jail for refusing to collaborate?”

“I _do _mind, but that’s more preferable than ending dead for carrying out a theft that is just possible in theory.”

“Okay, okay, gentlemen, I think it’s time to chill-out and taaaake a deep breath”, Lady suddenly said by conciliatorily extending her hands towards V and Vergil, since during that time Nero, Dante and Nico had been too busy staring the tennis match. Nero couldn’t help to think that, among all his romantic partners, definitely V took the cake in pissing his father off, which once again was something completely unnecessary to think because his relationship with V had always been fake.

Surprisingly, Lady’s intervention served so that Vergil and V stopped throwing daggers at each other, allowing Dante to intervene again by addressing the thief.

“Okay, so you’re saying that the theft is impossible to make?”

V took a deep breath and interchanged a look with Nico, who hummed thoughtfully before taking the floor.

“I wouldn’t say impossible, _but _in the report we omitted certain requirements to make sure that bitch bit the bait.”

“For example?”, Lady inquired while Nero chose to remain silent, not wanting to risk that his father changed his mind and asked him to leave.

“The alarms are way more complicated to deactivate, there are a lot of more guards and security, and we totally need three people inside instead of two.”

“And Malphas will reach this same conclusion when better studying the job”, V intervened, crossing his fingers on his lap, “and now that we know they are three sisters, for sure she’ll want to add one to the plan, which means that I’ll have to work with two Malphas and honestly, that’s more than what I can handle.”

“Oh, but that can be easily avoided.”

Everyone looked at Dante when this one rapidly talked with a confident tone.

“How?”, Vergil inquired with curiosity.

“Easy: you bring someone of the team with you, as your partner.”

V chuckled at the idea.

“No offense, Dante, but as fit as you are for your age, I think you don’t entirely fit the profile for the job.”

Dante laughed, and shook his head with a smile.

“Oh, don’t worry: it wasn’t me who I was talking about.”

By when Nero understood what Dante meant, it was already too late and the man had already hooked an arm around his shoulders, causing everyone to look at him while he and V spelled the exact same word.

“_What?_”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELL, I don't know if any of you was already expecting this development, but I hope to have been able to surprise you with a couple of things at least :DD


	18. Did you mean it? (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When reviewing this chapter, I realized that I could have split it in two instead of getting a monster of almost 10k words. BUT WELL, I honestly wanted to leave it at that exact point and I managed, so I just hope it isn't too tedious to read ^^U

V was glad for not being the only one feeling shocked by Dante’s unexpected suggestion. The unanimous reaction made the detective chuckle with his arm still hooked around Nero.

“Okay, okay, let me explain myself.”

“Yes, Dante: do so.”

Vergil’s tone indicated that he wasn’t pleased _at all_ with his brother’s suggestion, but Dante didn’t look particularly bothered by Vergil’s menacing aura, looking as if he knew exactly what he was doing.

“I know it sounds crazy, but if you think about it for a second, you’ll see the kid is our best candidate.”

Dante immediately began to enumerate with his fingers after finally releasing Nero, as if he wanted to prevent that Vergil (or V himself) argued against the proposal, something V had planned to do.

“First, the theft has to be done in two days, which means that we don’t have time to fill anyone else in to act as V’s accomplice. Second, among all the people involved, neither Lady or me can risk to go in disguise, since modesty aside we are quite well known and eliminating our trace is impossible in such a short time. And third, unlike us, Nero is a complete unknown and has a completely clean expedient thanks to Verg’s overprotectiveness—t-to the Chief’s _well judgement”_, Dante rectified after being pierced by Vergil's glare, “and we have an expert hacker in the team, so it wouldn’t take us _that _much to give Nero a profile that matches our necessities.”

“Woah woah woah, stop right there, old man”, Nico suddenly stood up and approached the table with her arms crossed, “let’s see if I’ve got it right: you say that I have to give Nero a completely new identity?”, she snorted, “that’s completely crazy! We’re dealing with a really experienced criminal who’s been doing reaaally nasty things for more than 15 years! And _that _means that turning Nero into a ‘criminal’ is _much _more than inventing a simple expedient! I’ll have to create a really believable trace on the net that covers ALL his criminal life, probably from his teenager days to this exact moment, because _everyone _that thoroughly wants to investigate him (and Malphas will want to do it) has to believe that he is who we want him to be. You know how damn difficult doing _THAT _is in such a little time?”

The relief V was experiencing while Nico talked about the difficulties involved in such task was considerably reduced when Dante, who had been nodding while listening to Nico, simply smiled with a total lack of concern.

“That means you can’t do it, love?”

Nico barked a laugh, and the last string of V’s hope of the woman convincing the others that participating in the mission was a suicide was completely crushed when the woman slammed her hands against the table surface with determination.

“Give me two hours and I’ll have everyone think that Nero was a cloistered nun that went stray.”

Dante and Lady began to laugh when hearing Nico’s confident statement, the only ones who didn’t look entirely convinced being Vergil, Nero, and obviously himself. V straightened his position on the chair to cross his arms on the table.

“Well, I really hate to break the moment but, once again, _our _conditions to collaborate were quite clear”, he made special emphasis on that word while looking at Nico pointedly, causing this one to gulp a little embarrassed after having basically allied herself with the enemy, “and leaving the officer out of this was one of them.”

“I have a name, you know?”, V’s eyes opened more in surprise while looking towards Nero, not having expected this one’s sudden cutting comment, “or do you want me to call you ‘thief’ from now on, huh?”

V observed Nero for a moment. His first impulse was to grit his teeth when Nero had the nerve of sounding annoyed. However, eventually he offered the officer an arrogant grin before talking with a casual tone.

“Strange. Last time I called you in such a way you didn’t look precisely bothered by it.”

The way Nero clenched his jaw as the tip of his ears turned red provided V with a momentary pleasure that increased when hearing Dante mutter a surprised ‘_Seriously? Roleplay?!_’ that ended with a pained ‘ouch’, probably after Lady shin kicked the man under the table.

“Yeah, but that was before I discovered you fucked cops to gain their trust.”

V went livid at the accusation, his tension so evident that Griffon squawked softly and flied to the back of the room with Nico, feeling safer there.

Not in a hundred years he would have guessed that Nero was going to dare to bring that topic up with his uncle _and _father present. The reactions of Dante and Lady when this happened were objectively priceless: the woman covered her mouth with her hands while looking alternatively at them while Dante rapidly stared at Vergil, who fortunately for them looked quite busy while being lost in his meditations to pay any attention to their current discussion. The only one who apparently didn’t react was Nico, who was observing their interactions with an unexpected analytical attitude.

Well, if Nero didn’t mind that his family knew about the implications of their previous ‘relationship’, definitely he wasn’t going to give it importance either.

“That’s rich coming from someone who did exactly the same to extract information from his prime suspect.”

Nero exhaled a frustrated sigh, leaning forward in the table.

“I told you already I _didn’t_ do that.”

V chuckled sarcastically.

“So you want me to believe that the police just happened to know my real name by luck?”

There it was that guilty expression again that only made V’s anger to grow.

“Look, it’s true I searched that information.”

“Well, you finally admit your implications in that one: congratulations.”

“But I wasn't planning to use it against you like that.”

“Of course not, Nero: you were just bored and wrote a perfectly complete report because you had nothing better to do.”

“God, can’t you just drop your sarcasm for one fucking second?”

“I would if you weren’t obviously trying to justify yourself.”

“Fuck, I can’t believe _I_ have to justify having done my job.”

“And you don’t need to, but trying to convince me that a report was mysteriously written on its own is incredibly stupid.”

“_Fine_, don’t believe it if you don’t want to, but that’s exactly what happened.”

V rolled his eyes. He had another sarcasm ready but at that moment Vergil cleared his throat. The impatient sound put an immediate end to their quarrel. Nero fixed his eyes on the table, like a kid being caught doing something wrong. V initially remained silent by pretending to be checking his nails, but when the silence got too tense, he reluctantly looked at Vergil, who was waiting with his hands interlaced on the table.

“Have you both finished?”, the Chief inquired, looking at them alternatively but stopping in V.

The thief suppressed the urge of rolling his eyes again and nodded, sustaining Vergil’s gaze until this one talked again with a definitive tone that didn’t leave much room for discussion.

“Although I would prefer that Nero didn’t participate so actively, Dante has a point. We don’t have many options, and given that Malphas will be contacting you in less than two hours, Ms. Goldstein must begin to work immediately if we really want this approach to work”, Vergil must have detected his intention to reply because the man continued with a light tired tone, “and yes, Mr. Vitale: you’ve left clear your reluctance to work with the officer here present. However, I believe that what I’m going to say next will convince you that keeping collaborating is way better that choosing jail.”

V exhaled a resigned sigh.

“I was wondering when the direct threats would appear. I must say I was expecting them sooner.”

To V’s surprise, Dante began to chuckle.

“I think that for once Vergil was serious about offering you a proper deal.”

It was difficult to believe that the Chief agreed to make any commitments, and for the faces Lady and Nero were making, it seemed they were just as surprised as him. Even Nico, who had already extracted her laptop and was working on it while half-sitting on the drawer of the corner, stopped typing to look at Vergil with curiosity.

“Alright”, V eventually said, looking at the Chief skeptically, “I’m all ears, Chief, but I doubt that whatever you can offer us is going to pay for the risk of—”

“William Blake’s diary will be yours if we catch the triplets.”

V’s eyes opened impossibly wide while Nico practically shouted an incredulous ‘_WHAT?!_’. Among all the scenarios that had appeared in his mind when Vergil suggested a deal, _that _would have never appeared.

“Uhm, Vergil…”, Dante intervened with a hesitant tone, “...are you sure that’s legal?”

Vergil clicked his tongue, leaning back against his chair.

“Of course it’s not, but neither it is to prepare a theft to catch criminals and we must do it nevertheless”, Vergil looked at V again, who couldn’t believe yet that the Chief was talking seriously, “so, what do you say, Mr. Vitale? From my point of view, the notebook is an easy price to pay for having those murderers in prison. And for a ‘book collector’ as you, I think that such an object will be enough to compensate for the risk of the mission and for the necessity of working with my son, don’t you think?”

V didn’t notice the snort that Nero exhaled at that last part, being lost in his thoughts while analyzing the pros and cons of Vergil’s offer.

This time he didn’t need to think much to make his mind. After all, if he couldn’t avoid jail, at least he’d make sure to do it while being the owner of that book.

“Shall I presume that this time you won’t be able to leave it written?”

* * *

The acceptance Vergil’s offer was the trigger so that everyone got to work once again. Vergil absented himself at that moment to contact Trish, who would be in charge of most part of his duties as long as the operation lasted. Dante and Nico also left the room to go the van together with Griffon, since the hacker had to quickly begin to work on his new past and apparently his uncle was going to help her with that. So, the only ones who remained in the room at the moment were Lady, V and him, at least until she suddenly excused herself to retrieve the documentation for the case.

When seeing her standing up Nero’s eyes dug on her before shifting briefly to V, who at the moment was busy writing something in his agenda. Lady understood the silent S.O.S. call not to be left alone with V, because she smiled at him reassuringly and voiced a silent ‘_It will be quick_’ before abandoning the room.

The moment the door closed behind Lady, a thick tension fell in the room. Nero sighed and looked around, pretending to be examining the drawings hanging on the wall. His legs bounced up and down nervously, unable to remain still with all that awkwardness surrounding them.

He hadn’t fully assimilated yet that he wasn’t just deeply involved in the operation, but that he would need to work closely with V, and considering the animadversion that the last felt for him, such a task wouldn’t be easy.

“Nero.”

He jumped startled on his chair, not having expected that V suddenly called his name. The action caused the thief to let out an involuntary chuckle that the man proceeded to hide with a cough. Nero’s chest felt tight at that. It wasn’t easy to forget that just a month ago they had been able to joke around without much trouble. Now they couldn’t even hold a proper conversation without arguing, and as much understandable as it was because V wouldn’t have been arrested if it wasn’t for him, it still sucked that everything had ended in such a way.

“Yeah?”, he pushed back those thoughts (that he knew would come back) to meet V’s eyes.

He frowned when seeing the thief looking unexpectedly serene.

“I believe I owe you an apology. Addressing you in such an impolite way before was out of place, and also to mention our past...involvement with the other detectives being present, so I hope you forgive me for that.”

Nero’s eyes opened more for a moment before slowly frowning.

“Okay, what the fuck has gotten into you now?”

V chuckled again, but it sounded fake, and artificially polite.

“Nothing at all, but staying in cordial terms is the best approach to carry out this operation as smoothly as possible. Besides, Malphas is dangerous enough on their own, and I doubt that being at each other’s throat is going to help, since we have to cover our respective backs. So, for the sake of the mission and our own security, I think the wisest approach would be to get over our past implications and have a fresh start”, V offered him a hand over the table as Nero stared at him in disbelief, “what do you say, Nero?”

The officer shifted his eyes from V’s to his extended hand.

During the whole conversation the thief had sounded as if he was talking to a stranger. He knew _that _was the attitude he should adopt because that was what they were: strangers. He had believed to know V. He had thought there had been something between them, but V had left clear he was mistaken. A reset was a good option. It was the _best _option to finally begin to get over V.

But he was a Sparda, and doing things easy wasn’t in their DNA apparently. So, instead of forcing himself to act indifferent, he grabbed V’s hand and dragged him forward until their faces were inches apart.

For the way V’s mouth half-parted unconsciously it was evident that the thief had expected to be kissed. Would V kiss back if he initiated it? Maybe he would. Maybe he would even agree to fuck on that same table because, for V at least, their story had only been a game, ‘a way to kill time’, and it had meant nothing.

The realization just made Nero’s jaw clench with anger before snarling the next words.

“You’re right. Hating each other won’t help in the mission, but you can stuff your fresh start up your ass because like hell if I can just forget about us”, he released V brusquely, who stayed leaning over the table while staring at him, “I know you’ll have my back covered because you want that diary, and I’ll have yours because I’m still dumb enough to care about you, so don’t force yourself to ‘be cordial’ with me. It’s not fucking needed.”

He leaned against the chair again, failing to see the expression V was making for being avoiding eye contact with him. A few seconds later the door snapped opened and Lady stomped inside.

“I’m back!”

Lady’s slightly breathless tone indicated she had tried to come back as soon as possible as promised. The woman looked at them alternatively and then suggested reviewing the plan with a cheery tone, clearly trying to improve the mood of the room.

Fortunately, it didn’t take Vergil much to come back, which helped Nero to concentrate in the mission and nothing else. He and V didn’t interact much. Vergil was usually the bridge between them, and the times when talking was unavoidable at least the managed to keep it civilized, even if the tension could still be cut with a knife.

When 5 minutes remained for the two hours to pass, they joined Dante and Nico in the van. His uncle and the woman were both whispering between them. Nero frowned when they abruptly stopped doing so when seeing him enter, in a clear suspicious way. However, he didn’t have time to ask what they were doing because at that moment Nico’s computer beeped, announcing an incoming connection.

“Malphas just contacted us”, Nico announced while V sat on the chair Dante had been occupying a moment ago.

Even if Nico’s vehicle was bigger than a normal surveillance van, it was impossible that four people could comfortably stand behind Nico and V, so Dante rapidly walked aside with Lady, leaving that spot to Nero and Vergil. The thief threw a brief look at Nero standing behind him while Nico took her time in establishing a ‘safe’ connection, the unwanted proximity causing that they both tensed. In a few seconds Nico nodded once while softly popping the bubble gum she was chewing, and when Vergil commanded a simple ‘Go ahead’, V approached his mouth to the microphone to start the show.

“Just in time, Ms. Malphas. In fact, you call a little before the accorded time.”

Nero equally admired and hated V’s capacity of entering the role of Poetic Burglar, proving once again how damn good his acting skills were. The thief’s ironic tone caused Malphas to chuckle, but her tone was quite serious when talking again.

“_Well, actually I would have liked to call you sooner, Mr. V, since there are certain aspects of the plan that have me a little worried._”

“I suspected that would be the case”, V continued talking perfectly at ease while observing the two pages resting on the table, one containing the plan they had handed to Malphas _and _the actual plan, “don’t hold back, Ms. Malphas: express your concerns.”

Malphas’ complaints covered absolutely all the weakest points that the initial plan had. They hadn’t managed to tie everything completely yet, but their work had been efficient enough so that V could convince Malphas they had.

Also, as the thief had foreseen it could happen, Malphas mentioned the difficulty of carrying out the job with two people alone. Without giving much details, she offered to contact with people of trust, moment in which V intervened.

“I expected you would suggest something like that, but I already have the perfect candidate for that job.”

Malphas sighed with patience.

“_No offense, Mr. V, but I hardly doubt your candidate can be more trustworthy than my acquaintances_.”

At that moment V turned his head briefly again but this time was to look at Vergil, who nodded to give him the signal to continue.

“I presume that with ‘acquaintances’ you mean your sisters?”

The silence that followed V’s words was so long that Nico actually checked the connection hadn’t been lost. When the hacker confirmed they were still on, V proceeded to read the main points of Nero’s investigation. The thief talked for a few minutes without interruptions before giving it closure.

“So understand my position, Ms. Malphas. I may be looking forward to our upcoming job, but we both know that ‘trust’ is not precisely what define our relation, so having someone I can really depend on would help to equal the balance of our two teams, don’t you agree?”

They had decided that being ‘transparent’ was the best way to approach that part of the plan, and V hadn’t hold back. A new silence fell next, but this one was shorter and eventually broken by Malphas’ laughter. She exhaled then a deep breath, and when talking there was honest admiration in her voice.

“_Well, it’s evident I clearly underestimated you, Mr. V. You aren’t certainly just a pretty face. Although I’m curious to know how you got all this information._”

V remained silent for a moment and then shifted his body to slowly drag his eyes towards Nero.

“I fucked a cop to get it.”

Nero felt his ears reddening again when hearing the composed answer, that didn’t match the sarcasm in V’s eyes. He didn’t know what it was worse: the painful hiss Dante and Lady exhaled at the damn same time, or hearing his father click his tongue disapprovingly next to him. Fortunately, Malphas’ disgusting laugh made everyone focus again.

“_Not a bad technique. Perhaps I should use it more often._”

Her tone indicated she thought V was joking, so the thief continued.

“I don’t recommend it: for sure someone will end with their heart broken”, something in the excessive disdain in V’s tone put Nero in alert, but before he could fully analyze it V continued, “and now, jokes aside, my partner just happens to be quite good at investigating and managed to learn about your family business.”

“_And can I at least know your skillful partner’s identity? Given that you know about my family business, I think it’s only fair.”_

V did so, as they had planned. Nico hadn’t finished her work yet, but the information she had disseminated was enough so that Malphas could fully investigate the past they were still in the process of creating.

When the conversation was over, they were separated in teams (with Nero and V in different ones, courtesy of Vergil) and proceeded to make the most of the remaining time that they had until the start of the operation that Friday night.

Everyone knew that they were breaking the rules by doing what they were doing. Carrying out a ‘real’ theft with criminals required an authorization from Red Grave’s mayor himself, due to possible loss of valuable pieces and, what mattered the most, the risk putting civilians in danger. Dante commented this in one of the last meetings, but as usual Vergil’s logic to ignore those rules was sound: the list of people who had died, directly or indirectly, because of Malphas had long surpassed the two digits, and they couldn’t allow that any of the sisters escaped for an authorization that would take weeks to arrive. As crazy as it sounded, what they were doing was clearly illegal, but it was their best option to catch Malphas.

As usual, Vergil was going to apply to its fullest ‘the end justifies the means’ method, and this time Nero couldn’t agree more to follow it.

* * *

The job would be carried out during the Annual Conference of Occultism, whose existence Nico and V hadn’t known until beginning to prepare the theft. The conference was going to take place in the Museum of Contemporary Art during the weekend, but the attendants could already register for it during the afternoon of that same Friday in certain hotels that had a limited number of rooms reserved for the event.

In order to carry out the theft, Nero, Malphas and V would be pretending to be attendants. They would be staying in two different hotels with views to different places of the museum, which would allow them to watch over the security of the place. During the day and half they had until initiating the first step of the theft, the police had installed cameras and micros to the room that would be assigned to Malphas, something that had also been arranged, to make sure that the women wouldn’t try anything fishy while being on their own.

[Il Chiaro Mondo](https://devilmaycry.fandom.com/wiki/Il_Chiaro_Mondo_Hotel) was the hotel where V and Nero would be staying, and it was also the place where the thief was going in taxi at that moment. When V was half-way the hotel, he began to feel nervous, which annoyed him. He was tired of his own overthinking, which had gone overload since that interaction with Nero in the meeting room. The officer had really looked annoyed when he suggested to start a new, as if Nero had something he had to get over when, theoretically, he shouldn’t be caring about him at all.

At least, he and Nero had barely seen each other after the conversation with Malphas, since the officer had been studying the plan with Nico while he reviewed other details with the twins. It was obvious that Vergil was trying to separate them as most as possible, and he was honestly glad about it, and also about the fact that they were barely going to see each other until the next morning, when the second step of the operation would begin.

“I’ve arrived”, V announced after the taxi left him in the small plaza in front of the hotel, which was already pretty crowded even if it was barely past lunch time. By then, the police had assumed that V wasn’t going to attempt any escape as long as Nico was under the police vigilance, so that afternoon (and later night) the only ones in charge of watching over Malphas in the van while keeping contact with Nero and him would be Nico and Dante.

“_Roger_”, Nico said when V entered the place, carrying a small suitcase with all the things they would need for the next day, “_for now there’s no movement in Malphas’ hotel._”

“_Yeah, we’re dying of boredom here_”, V heard Dante yawn while he approached the reception to register, “_do you think there’s any chance that she suddenly decides to meet with her sisters?_”

“I find that outcome quite unlikely”, V answered once he was on his way to the main stairs leading to the rooms, key and registration badge in hand, “though it would be nice to get the diary as a prize just for spending one night in an hotel.”

_“Yeah, I guess not. But damn, catching one of the most famous criminals in a pajama party would be awesome.”_

By when Dante finished talking V was in front of his room, moment in which Nero, who was obviously in the line too, intervened with one of his typical snorts.

“I don’t know about you, old man, but that’s a vision I’d prefer not to see.”

V, who was about to open the room with his key, froze when hearing Nero talk in his ear _and _at the other side of the door.

He completed the action more brusquely than usual, and his eyes opened wide when seeing Nero sitting at the window, binoculars in hand and an expression of disbelief in his face.

“V?”, Nero looked as confused as him, “what the fuck are you doing in my room?”

“_Your_ room?”, V said after recovering, dragging his suitcase inside and closing the door, making evident he didn’t plan to move, “Nero, this room was booked at my name so obviously you are the one invading _my _room.”

Nero huffed and crossed his arms, making V put some extra effort in not diverting his eyes towards the man’s biceps.

“Look, I’ve been here for a fucking hour and half watching the museum, so it’s obvious that _you _are the one mistaken—”

“_Guys, guys, chill out! There’s no reason to fight!_”

“_Exactly, you’re both right._”

Both V and Nero frowned at the same time, then tensed, and then like it happened just a day ago they let out an incredulous ‘_What?_’.

“What the fuck does that mean?”, Nero snapped soon after, but when Dante talked, he sounded everything but worried about Nero’s outburst.

“_Well, Nico and I have talked today, and we’ve reached the conclusion that it would do you some good to spend some... quality time together”,_ the more Dante talked, the more open Nero’s eyes ended and the more irritated V felt, “_I mean, you have to convince Malphas you trust each other, right? And right now, it’s impossible you do that if you are wanting to kill each other. So, there’s nothing better than a guys night to smooth things over, don’t you think_—_?_”

Dante was still with his stupid arguments when V stomped out of the room, leaving Nero inside with a dumbfounded expression. He rapidly climbed down the stairs, exited the hotel, and with determined steps he walked to the place where he knew the van was while ignoring Nico and Dante calling for him.

He approached the van face-on, opened the door when Dante was in the process of opening it, and after passing by the detective he entered Nico’s operation center to drag the astonished woman out her seat by grabbing her arm.

“Wait, V!”, she said, barely having time to remove her headphones before they were forcibly plugged out her computer, “V, what the hell are you—?”

The thief simply opened the door of the toilet, pushed Nico inside, and entered after her while closing the door behind them, removing his earpiece in the process to finally have some privacy with his ‘friend’.

“Well, that’s exactly my line, Nico, what the fuck are _you _doing?”, he hissed the sentence, partly because the purpose of going there was that the others (Dante in this case) didn’t listen to them, and partly because he was too angry to raise his voice. Also, the conciliatory, not-very-concerned tone Nico used just worsened his irritation.

“Listen, V, it’s logical you’re a little upset with me…”

“‘A little’?”

“... ‘kay, maybe I should change ‘upset’ for ‘angry’. And I get it! I know that lately I’ve been doing some weird things. Weirder than usual I mean.”

“You mean like accepting working in the theft without even talking about it?”

“Aaand ‘angry’ falls short too: ‘terribly enraged’ is more suitable.”

“Or teaming up with Dante as if he had suddenly become your best friend?”

“What?! Come on, dude, that’s a _really low_ accusation!”

“Is it? Because lately it gives me the impression you have changed sides.”

“V_, _man_, _I would _never _do that to you!”

“So, if there is any secret deal with the police that I don’t know about and that involves only you, at least you could do me the courtesy of letting me know after so many years working together.”

“V, I SWEAR it’s not about that, okay? I’m on your side and I will always be, and there’s a reaaally good explanation for this sudden change of room.”

“Well, I hope you don’t give the excuse of the operation suffering from budget cuts.”

“Nope, of course it’s not that.”

“Then I’m all eager to hear the reason.”

“Nero is in love with you.”

All the anger V had been feeling was replaced by stupor. His first intention was to open his mouth to say something sarcastic, needing to show he wasn’t naive enough to believe such a claim, but Nico’s expression was so scarily serious and convinced that he could only remain mute, which allowed Dante to join the conversation after opening the door of the bathroom.

“She’s right”, V turned around to look at Dante, “I’m not sure how serious _you _are about Nero, but believe me, kid: I had never seen him more heartbroken than when he came back from the cells.”

“And not just that: he stopped his dad from putting you at risk”, Nico nodded with a smile when V looked at her again, “I was there. He was willing to go to that pub to save your ass in case Malphas tried something. And damn, I would’ve wanted to let you know sooner, but it was impossible to meet you in private with the Demon Chief around, so I—”, Nico rectified when Dante looked at her offended, “sorry, _we_ thought that the only solution was putting you together so that things flowed naturally, you know what I mean?”

By then, V had recovered his capacity to speak.

“But that doesn’t mean anything”, he said, trying to sound skeptic without fully achieving it, “he’d have done the same for anyone who was at risk. And that doesn’t change the fact that he—”

“—used that report against you?”, Dante completed as if he was reciting an old tune, “kid, have you even let him explain what _really _happened?”

V tensed when some light reproach escaped Dante’s tone, but the man had a point. His expression must have been enough answer because Dante exhaled a patient sigh.

“Well, then do me a favor, and the next time the topic appears, let my nephew explain himself, okay?”

At that moment the telephone of Nico’s van sounded, which made Dante hurry to take the call. Unsurprisingly it was a really irritated Nero that wanted to know why everyone had gone radio silence.

“Come on, you should come back”, Nico said patting V’s back with a wide smirk, “oh, and you better wait to _properly _fix things with your Juliet: work goes first, you know?”

V obeyed, a little in automatic mode since he was still thinking about what Nico and Dante had said. They both had looked really sure about Nero’s feelings, and they had absolutely zero reason to make him believe something like that if it wasn’t true. So, as Nico had said, a proper talk with Nero was in order, and he didn’t plan to delay it more than that night.

* * *

From the window Nero was able to see when V came back to the hotel, so it didn’t take him by surprise when V entered. What did take him by surprise was the completely absent-minded expression V was carrying, nothing to do with the anger he had showed when abandoning the room.

“You okay?”, he asked with a frown, since the thief looked as if he had watched a ghost or something.

V nodded briefly, meeting his eyes for a moment before taking his suitcase to the bed.

“You can rest a little if you want. I’ll take care of the next turn.”

Nero blinked while V extracted his things from the suitcase. The thief’s offer sounded sincere, and completely lacking sarcasm for once. He didn’t know what the hell had happened in the van, nor why the hell V had suddenly suffered from a change of heart, but honestly at the moment he just wanted to stop looking at the damn museum whose architecture he was going to memorize at that rate.

“Okay. Thanks”, he stepped aside as V approached the window, changing seats with him.

An hour had passed when Nico and Dante told them that Malphas had arrived at the hotel alone. V changed places with Nero again while he attended the woman’s call. The fact that Malphas had already acted in that museum almost two months ago, ending with a victim, had severely increased the security, so studying the change of guards and the general traffic would allow them to know the best hour to begin the actual theft.

The following hours passed slow and mostly in silence, even when they had the typical surveillance dinner consisting of a couple of sandwiches that Nero ate while watching. By then, they had clear what the perfect time to act was, but they preferred to play safe and wait until the museum closed in case a change of plans was needed. V made the most of Nero’s last surveillance turn to take a quick shower. The officer made sure to keep his eyes exclusively focused on the window while hearing V undress, and just sneaked a glance when the thief abandoned the bathroom dressing with his [night clothes](https://www.myunderwear24.be/media/catalog/product/t/r/triumph_pyjama_1018-2580-0004_v.jpg).

It was the first time Nero saw V dressing so casually, and also the first he watched V’s usual perfect combed hair looking completely damp and wilder. He gulped, feeling his lower half wanting to react, which forced him to cross his legs on the chair he was sitting to make it go to sleep again.

“_Well, this is finally over for now_”, Dante announced when, finally, the lights of the museum turned off, indicating its closure, “_you should probably take a rest._”

“_Oh, and we’ll call the room if something urgent happens, so you can cut off the communication for a... ‘better rest’._”

By then Nero was so willing to sleep that he simply hummed, not detecting the playful component of Nico’s last words. However, his dizziness lasted exactly until he was about to change clothes and realized that V had already entered the right side of the bed, facing up with his look absent.

Nero stood there, wondering if he should enter the bathroom to change himself or not, but V took the decision for him.

“You can undress at ease, officer. I doubt you have something I haven’t seen already.”

Nero’s eyes opened more when V said that in a clear joking tone. The thief looked at him, hinting an amused smirk that made Nero exhale a surprised chuckle.

“You couldn't come up with a better cliché sentence?”

“Probably, but all that surveillance has affected my usual loquacity.”

Nero snorted, removing his jeans and t-shirt until remaining in his boxers. He tried not to show nervousness while putting his sport pants and tank top, but it was difficult when feeling V’s silent stare on him.

When he had changed already, he hesitated again, wondering if it would be wiser to sleep on the long couch situated against one of the room walls.

“If you are waiting for an invitation, I’m afraid you’re going be disappointed.”

“Fuck, you can’t do anything easy, right?”

Nero talked with light exasperation while entering the bed, but he had to pretend to be annoyed when V chuckled as an answer.

“No. Certainly it’s not my style”, the thief admitted while Nero turned off the lights and accommodated facing up, his right hand flexed behind his head and his left arm across his chest.

The bed was big enough so that they could both lie without touching each other, but V’s presence next to him was enough to make Nero know that falling asleep would be difficult. First, because last time he shared a bed with V it happened what happened, and now all those images were coming vividly to him. And second, because V’s attitude since he came back was weird as hell. Maybe he would be an idiot by bringing up the topic, but he needed to know. He was beginning to let his hopes up again, and he knew that was the last thing he should do.

“V.”

“Nero.”

They both talked at the same time, which made them chuckle _at the same time_.

“Fuck, how much _more _cliché this situation can turn out?”

“I believe a little more”, V’s cryptic words caused Nero to frown, but the thief was talking again before he could ask anything, “what were you going to ask?”

By then he could perfectly distinguish V’s marked features in the darkness.

“Did something happen in the van?”

“Something to explain my change of behavior you mean?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

V remained silent and then shifted position to be facing Nero.

“Yes, it happened. But before, there’s something I’d like you to answer”, V flexed his elbow on the pillow to lean his temple on his palm, “what did you mean when saying that you didn’t write that report?”

Probably Nero should feel frustrated for the mention of that topic, but since V seemed honestly willing to listen this time, he answered.

“Exactly that: I didn’t write it. I did investigate you, but just because I wanted to know more about you, and see if what you told me during our date—our meeting was true. But I never intended to use it against you. It was my father the one who recovered my investigation and translated it to that report, but he didn’t tell me what he was planning to do with it”, Nero gulped again and averted his eyes, “and just for the record, if I had known what he planned to do, probably I’d have warned you.”

V stayed silent for a moment, before talking again with a tone that was so calm that Nero realized it was surely forced.

“And what you said in the cells, did you mean it?”

Nero gritted his teeth. He shifted his body to lean his weight on his forearm to better face V, who was barely blinking while looking at him.

“If I meant what, V? That for me it was more than a way to kill time?”

Another pause, followed by another unnecessary question.

“Was it?”

“Yeah, it was, happy?”, Nero snarled, his breath a little accelerated for the frustration of V asking all that surely to mock him, “I thought we were dating, I thought you cared, and I was stupid enough to think that you told me your name because we had something special, okay? _That_’s the level of stupidity I had. So congratulations, Vitale: now that we are with the clichés, you can add to your CV that you managed to steal something else than those damn books during your last jobs—”

His breath was the next thing Nero was stolen, after V lunged forward, tangled his fingers in the back of his hair and kissed him with such intensity that Nero felt himself getting instantly hard.

He grunted when V’s tongue slipped past his lips, without invitation but not unwelcoming, and he had barely thought about the necessity of pushing V back when the thief liberated his lips to snap the next words against his mouth.

“You’re right. Your level of stupidity is above the clouds.”

“_What_?!”, Nero exclaimed, his arousal rapidly replaced by offence.

“In fact, you’re so damn stupid that you are going to fail the detective exam. That’s the level of fool you are.”

“V, if you call me stupid again, I swear we’ll have to find a replacement for tomorrow mission because...”

V kissed him again, this time slower, and gentler, and with so unexpected care that Nero found himself even more excited than before when the thief separated with a resigned expression.

“Do I really have to spell it aloud for you, Nero?”

The last gulped, his heart frenetic inside his chest for the familiar warmth V’s tone was displaying.

“Yes, please.”

V rolled his eyes, sliding his hand from the back of his head to settle it on his cheek in a gesture that contrasted with the light impatience of his tone.

“Yes, we were dating. Yes, I did care about you. And yes, revealing my identity was something special. Because unlike you, that day I _didn’t _mean a single word.”

Nero’s eyes snapped opened, his throat suddenly dry.

“So when you said it was a way to kill time…”

“I lied.”

“And when you said that you just wanted to gain my trust...”

“Nero, what part of ‘I didn’t mean a single word’ you can’t possibly understand?”

“But why the hell did you lie about that?”

“Because I thought _you _didn’t care”, V snapped with an exasperation that Nero had never seen him display, “must I remind you that everything indicated that you had turned me in? What was I supposed to do: to admit that I had fallen for the cop who put me in jail? Well, my apologies, but _that _would be _even more_ stupid than you being unable to realize I was clearly lying, which by the way shows that your capacity of deduction is extremely poor and—”

This time, it was Nero the one who decided to stop V’s haughty babbling by pinning him against the bed with his whole body to kiss him stupid.

V groaned when Nero began to kiss him with desperation. A pool of heat settled in his stomach, while a warm one invaded his chest at the realization that Nico and Dante had been right: Nero and him had been on the same page all that time without noticing.

“What?”, Nero exhaled against his mouth, the officer’s hands stopping in the process of raising V’s t-shirt when the thief chuckled with relief.

“Nothing”, V commented, allowing Nero to remove his t-shirt while proceeding to do the same with the one the officer was wearing, “just that _maybe _you haven’t been the only stupid around.”

Nero chuckled too, kissing V again while this one enclosed his arms around his back, kneading the muscle while they continued making out with urgency. V didn’t waste time in grinding up against Nero, causing this one’s head to snap backwards with a curse.

“We should probably rest”, Nero said half-heartedly, cursing when V simply hummed before proceeding to leave a hickey on his neck, his hands travelling down the expanse of Nero’s back until sneaking under the officer’s sport pants.

“Yes, we certainly should”, V groped the flesh, making Nero curse again, “do you want that?”

Nero snorted, opening his closed eyes to look at V.

“You mean resting, or _this_?”, he accompanied the last word by pushing back against V’s grip, making this one bite his lower lip before his right hand slipped under Nero’s boxers.

“I’ll make it easy to deduce”, V teasingly said, sliding his long index finger down Nero’s crack, making the officer’s hands grasp the mattress on either side of his head.

“Are you going to fuck me?”, Nero asked with blunt eagerness, making V show a mischievous grin while circling Nero’s entrance, feeling the muscle twitch against the tip of his fingers.

“Just if you ask nicely”, he nipped at the officer’s prominent jaw, “do you want me to, Nero?”

Nero pushing back against the digit was enough answer, but it was still pleasant to hear Nero snarl an aroused ‘_Fuck yes_’ before capturing his mouth again.

The next time they separated V pushed Nero a little backwards to sit against the headboard, encouraging Nero to settle on his lap. They both were still with their pants on, but their mouths didn’t want to separate long enough to fully remove them.

With their mouths locked, V lowered Nero’s pants and boxers to expose his curved member. Needless to say, neither of them was expecting to get laid that night, so neither of them had carried supplies, but it seemed that Nico and Dante had really thought quite ahead and had left a bottle of lube and a packet of condoms inside the nightstand drawer.

“Damn, all five stars hotels do that?”, Nero asked innocently when V reached for the lube, making the thief laugh.

“I have the feeling that we’ve just been lucky”, Nero looked at him confused, but V didn’t plan to ruin the mood with an explanation, so quickly made Nero forget about the matter by enclosing his lips against the officer’s right nipple, making this one gasp in need while grabbing the headboard with both hands.

In mere minutes Nero was sinking down in V’s lubed index and middle fingers. The thief’s expert tongue and teeth on Nero’s chest allowed the officer to relax soon enough so that in no time the pain of the stretch was replaced by pleasure, until Nero was practically riding his digits, clearly needing to replace them with something thicker.

“It seems you’re ready”, V raggedly said when he could easily scissor his fingers inside Nero’s suffocating warm walls. He left a new hickey on Nero’s tempting pectorals before using his free hand to guide one of Nero’s hands gripping the headboard towards his member, “would you mind a little of help down there?”

V was only hoping some quick pumps to leave him ready, but he certainly didn’t complain when Nero knelt between his legs to swallow his cock in a fluid motion.

“Well, that’s better”, he breathed with a smile, leaning the back of his head against the headboard while rocking his hips, slowly fucking Nero’s mouth.

He moaned when Nero’s hands reached up to tease his nipples while giving him oral, the combined stimulation making his member spasm until he honestly feared to come too soon.

“Too much to handle?”, Nero teased, causing V to look at him with a glint of mischief.

“Turn around”, he commanded, smirking when Nero promptly obeyed by getting on fours, facing the headboard.

V bit his lower lip while situating behind Nero. He took his time roaming his hands through the officer’s back once again before hooking his hand on his ass, and smirked when feeling Nero’s legs shaking a little when his bare member made contact with his crack.

“V”, Nero gritted, his member throbbing in need when V slowly dragged his member between his buttocks without actually entering, the thief purposely grunting softly while massaging his skin to stir him up, “fuck, you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Oh, I am”, V smugly said, while Nero finally heard the sound of the condom being opened, “the same as you, I dare to assume.”

Nero snorted softly.

“Well, I _was _enjoying it, but if you don’t wanna me to lose the boner maybe you should finally start doing something—_ah_!”

His protest ended with a louder gasp when, with the only warning of V’s hands securing his hips, the thief suddenly began to push inside.

“Is this what you wanted so badly, Nero?”, V purred with satisfaction in a slightly strained voice that betrayed how good he was feeling with Nero’s tight entrance enveloping him.

“You _bastard_.”

Nero panted, his insult losing effect for the blissed tinge of his voice due to the slow, intense stretch. Damn, it had been a while since the last time he bottomed, but V’s dick dragging against his walls until ending pressing against his prostate quickly reminded him why he loved that role as much as the other one.

“_Sssh_, watch your tongue, officer”, V hushed, and Nero could perfectly picture the man’s smirk in his next words, “or I’ll have to tell your father that he failed to teach you manners.”

Nero was about to snap that mentioning Vergil perhaps wasn’t the best way to turn him on, but V’s reaching around to grope his pectorals made him soon forget about his protest. He cursed in need when V pinched his nipples. His hips began to rock back, wanting to get V to move.

“_Fuck_”, Nero cursed, gritting his teeth when V continued pulling at his chest but didn’t move yet, the man’s plump lips giving open mouth kisses to his shoulders to make his need grow stronger, “damn it, _V_.”

The thief chuckled with satisfaction, leaning forward to purr the sentence on his ear.

“Something wrong, Nero?”

The officer cursed again, turning his head to the side to quickly capture V’s mouth in an intense kiss that made the man’s member spasm briefly inside him.

“Yes, I want you to fuck my damn brains out”, it was his turn to smirk when V’s eyes opened more, surely not having expected his direct demand, “so please, Vitale: give it to me. _Hard_.”

Nero braced himself for what was coming when V’s eyes darkened and the grip on his hips tightened.

“Well, for once I’m going to fully obey you, _officer_.”

Nero shivered when hearing the raw lust in V’s raspier tone, and unabashedly moaned when the thief _finally_ pulled back almost completely before pushing in forcibly, making Nero’s head snap back as his mouth half-parted.

“Oh. _Yeah_”, Nero raggedly said when V immediately adopted a pace of steady but well aimed thrusts that made the hair in the back of his head stand, “oh shit, yes. _There_. Go harder, Vitale, _f__uck_.”

V didn’t use to curse. Not on a common basis and neither during sex, but this time he found himself refraining from doing so or from calling God’s name in vain because the vision of Nero writhing and needily asking for more under him was too much to stand silent.

“You’re so demanding, Nero”, V grabbed the officer’s round flesh more firmly and used his legs to prompt Nero’s more opened in order to bury inside him more easily, “submission suits you as much as I thought.”

He licked his lower lip when his taunt made Nero look back at him, his expression slightly flushed for the incessant fucking. 

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”, Nero impaled himself back in V with matching force, his voice broken for the thrusts but still provoking, “would you like to tie me up? To make me beg?”

“God, _yes_”, V groaned, nails scratching down Nero’s sculpted muscles while pounding into him more vigorously, spurred on for the sight Nero had put in his mind, “and I will do it next time. I’ll tie you up like that night in the rooftop, but in my bed. And you’ll come like that: untouched and begging my name.”

“_Fuck_”, Nero cursed, feeling himself close to the edge due to V’s velvety voice making such filthy promises.

He reached his peak with V’s true name in his lips, his hands turning into fists while V continued moving inside him until finishing, with his nails digging in his hips. They both collapsed on the bed, with V’s body completely pressed against his back. Nero was about to make the ‘_Heavy_’ joke but at that moment V shifted his head to deposit a soft kiss on his temple. The intimacy of the gesture provoked an effect in Nero almost as intense as the orgasm that was still lingering in his body. In fact, it turned him instantly hard again, which prompted him to move to the side in order to make V fall on the bed.

The thief huffed softly, his expression showing that the man was about to complain for the treatment but Nero swallowed his protest with another kiss while settling between his legs.

“Wait”, V breathed, his tone partly amused when Nero continued kissing down, “at least let me remove this.”

Nero allowed the thief to remove and tie the used condom, but the moment V left it on the nightstand he continued where he had left it. He played with V’s tattooed chest, licked down his clenched stomach, and after avoiding his over sensitized member he manhandled V to turn around. He had time to hear V’s breath hitching in anticipation when he forcibly ripped his lower clothes off his body. He then grabbed the man’s buttocks and opened them at the same time that he dove in, tracing the man’s opening with his tongue in order to greedily eat him out.

The loud, broken moan that escaped V’s half-parted mouth told him that the man was unprepared for being suddenly rimmed, but far from protesting V only exhaled an aroused ‘_Yes_’ while spreading his legs further to relax the rim of muscle. The thief’s hands clutched at the mattress while rocking back against his mouth, encouraging him to keep going.

“I see you _really_ don’t want to rest”, V managed to say in a breathless teasing voice as Nero continued lapping at his entrance. His fingers dug more on the mattress when Nero’s tongue pressed deeper, swirling inside until he could feel his softened member wanting to get hard again.

“No, I don’t”, Nero raggedly said, looming over him to press both of his hands on either side of his over sensitized body while lowering his head to say the next words against his cheek, “if this is our last night together, I don’t want to waste it. I want to have you in any way I can. I want to make sure you won’t forget about me.”

V gulped when hearing Nero’s slightly desperate words. He exhaled a chuckle to try to push back the small lump forming in his throat and nudged his nose against Nero’s cheek playfully.

“I could never forget you, Nero. You are my first and only cop”, he teased, but Nero knew how to read between lines because he smiled with relief before kissing him intensely.

V turned around, enclosing his legs around Nero’s waist. The officer kissed him deeply, and when tried to go for another condom V didn’t let him go. He bucked against Nero provocatively, biting his lower lip when feeling the tip of the officer member nudging as his entrance. Nero grunted in arousal over him. His hands hooked on his waist while tentatively grinding forward but without actually entering him, as if he was still hesitating to do it raw.

“Come on, Nero”, V urged, getting a hold on the pillow to brace himself for what was coming, “right back at you: give it _all _to me.”

Nero diligently delivered. V’s body arched with a blissed moan with the first deep slam that filled him whole, and which was immediately followed by others that were just as perfectly brutal. V didn’t hold back his pleasure. He didn’t refrain himself from moaning Nero’s name as the officer messed him against the sheets.

He encouraged Nero with broken, insistent ‘_come on_’s as, his hands finding anchor on Nero’s biceps when this one leaned forward to lean his arms on the mattress. They kissed dirtily non-stop, nipping, licking and capturing each other’s lips while rocking together with urgency, the slapping sounds of their skins connecting mingling with their own groans and the creaking of the hotel bed.

As their second orgasm grew closer, Nero incoherently began to grunt more openly how good it felt, how good _V _felt, all those praises mixing with ‘_love it_’s and ‘_love you_’s had V’s chest swell with a mix of affection and also certain bitterness, since as Nero had said, for sure that would be their last night together in quite a long time.

The second round was shorter than the first, but just as good. V closed his eyes while riding his second dry orgasm, his hands travelling down Nero’s back until stopping at his ass. He grabbed the round skin to press the officer against him, encouraging Nero to finish while being completely buried inside. He clenched around the softening member, making Nero pant breathlessly and whine a quick string of curses for the feeling of being milked until the very last drop.

V smirked when seeing Nero’s ecstatic expression, knowing that whatever happened the next day, the officer would be unable to forget that night. To forget _him_.

At that moment Nero finally opened his eyes and looked down at V, panting hard. A contented chuckle escaped him when seeing V’s sex-dazed but utterly satisfied expression before collapsing forward. V muttered a suffocated ‘_Heavy_’ that sounded quite sincere, so Nero reluctantly leaned his weight on his forearms while continuing caging V against the bed.

“Damn”, he exhaled, his breathing still accelerated, “it’s been..._damn_.”

V laughed laboredly at his lack of loquacity, his index tracing Nero's jaw distractedly.

“Yes. ‘_Damn_’ indeed”, V mocked him, gulping briefly before muttering the next words, “not bad for a goodbye.”

Nero rapidly kissed V again to remove that light bitter expression from the thief’s face.

“Hey, there’s still night ahead. Gimme 30 minutes and we can go for the third round.”

V chuckled, surprising Nero by reaching towards the telephone in the night stand.

“I’ll take your word on that, but first...”, Nero was about to ask V what he was doing when V talked, “Nico? Yes, don’t worry, we’re fine. But there’s something that Nero wants to tell you.”

Nero blinked in confusion when suddenly V situated the phone against his ear.

“Say ‘thank you’ to Nico and your uncle.”

“What?”

“Just do it.”

“Uhm...thank you?”

V recovered the phone with a smile.

“Nothing to add. Have a good night.”

Nero frowned when hearing Dante and Nico's happy ‘_Woohoo_’s at the other side before V hanged up.

“O - kay”, Nero frowned, tilting his head, “what the hell was that?”

V shrugged with a smile and enclosed his arms around Nero’s shoulders.

“I think the explanation can wait until tomorrow, don’t you think?”

Nero smirked down at V, accepted his long kiss, and decided that yes, definitely the explanation could wait for a little longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaand two chapters to go! :DD  
The next one is going to be long too (probably as much as this one...) and it's probably going to take me a little more than usual to update, since it will cover the story resolution before the epilogue, so I hope that you have enjoyed this one in the meantime <3 <3 :)


	19. Take care, Vitale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As warned, MONSTER chapter ahead, but at this point I didn't want to split it in two. 
> 
> Also, I hope the part of the theft is more or less understandable and not too boring! Honestly I think it has turned to be quite TOO long and maybe I should have gone with less detail but this is how it turned out -.- Also, writing the triplets was a pain in the ass (at the end I went with Malphas 1, 2 and 3 because I refused to invent three names for them xD) and for sure there are some numbers mixed there, so apologies in advance for any mistakes ^^U
> 
> With that said, I _really_ hope you enjoy the almost last chapter!! ^^

V had to suppress a smile when Nero lasted exactly ten seconds with his [jacket](https://contestimg.wish.com/api/webimage/5612446862659511000e5ce8-large.jpg?cache_buster=0a4b7e25d934187d2e3de9adb9799453) on after abandoning the hotel in direction of the museum.

“Fuck, I don’t understand how you gothics survive in August”, the officer dried the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, “seriously, how is it you aren’t dying with [_that_](https://shrinestore.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/45555771_10160869948730237_5995180806505496576_o-e1541474331934.jpg)?”

“It’s a simple matter of attitude, Nero: you only have to stop focusing on the heat not to be bothered by it.”

“And how the hell I’m supposed to do that when it’s this damn hot at 9 a.m.?”

“_I agree with the kid: it’s hot as hell inside this car too._”

“_Okay, okay, jeez, I will turn the aircon higher, happy?_”

“_Hehehe, I think your age is showing, Dante~_”

“_Lady, love, you’re in your bra, obviously you are fine, but it’s not **just **me: that poor chicken is about to roast spontaneously._”

“_Detectives, are you going to force me go there myself?_”

“_N-No, sir!_”

The conversations inside Nico’s van were considerably reduced when Vergil intervened with his usual reprimanding tone. Due to inescapable commitments, the Chief wouldn’t be able to join the operation in person until noon, but of course that wouldn’t stop Nero’s father from keeping controlling everything. Vergil was that kind of control freak, and although one day Nico had the nerve of mentioning that he and the Chief were quite similar in that aspect, the thief refused to believe it.

The museum where the conference (and theft) would take place was a mere 5 minutes’ walk from _Il Chiaro Mondo _hotel. The current Mayor of Red Grave was obsessed with remodeling the city in order to attract more tourism, but at least he had enough brain to have allowed the [building](https://http2.mlstatic.com/sobre-azucar-coleccion-museo-metropolitano-arte-nueva-york-D_NQ_NP_758916-MLA27216644113_042018-F.jpg) to maintain its original architecture, focusing on modernizing its name and the contemporary thematic of most part of their exhibitions.

V had been before in the Museum, purely as a hobby. Also, during the past week everyone had thoroughly studied its floor plan in order to plan the theft. But still, when stepping on the main, impressive [entrance](https://www.artsjournal.com/realcleararts/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/MetGreatHall.jpg), the thief couldn’t help to remember why he and Nico had always preferred to avoid that kind of places to ‘work’: it was too big, and too crowded, since the museum wasn’t closed to the public and there were several tourists around besides the people attending the conference.

While looking at the people carelessly walking around, V couldn’t help to admire Vergil’s nerve. The man was leading an unauthorized, _illegal _operation in which three really dangerous criminals were involved. It was true that the probabilities of Malphas harming any civilians were practically non-existent, since it would imply to greatly complicate getting their prize, but they weren’t zero, which would force the van team to pay extra attention to the women, adding some extra difficulty to the whole operation.

Definitely, there was no doubt that his last job before taking a rest as The Poetic Burglar was going to be big, and complicated.

At that moment Nero cursed next to him while looking at the panel with the different sessions of the conference.

“What?”

“Lunch has been delayed to 13.00. We’re gonna miss it.”

V blinked while looking at Nero, and chuckled when realizing that Nero’s disappointment was real.

“What?”, Nero inquired with confusion while V shook his head.

“Nothing. I’m glad that you are only worried about such an important matter.”

Nero snorted softly at his ironic comment.

“There’s no point in being nervous: if everything goes fine, then great. And if it doesn’t, well, we have backup, so we’ll figure something out together.”

V nodded with an amused smile, feeling more relaxed thanks to Nero’s over optimistic attitude.

“Not a bad plan, certainly”, he patted the jacket Nero was wearing hanging from his shoulder, “by the way, are you sure that you don’t want to put it on again.”

“Why? It’s still quite hot in here.”

“Perhaps, but it will help cover _those_.”

V’s smiled widened when Nero blushed a little at the mention of the hickeys on his neck. The officer was about to put his jacket on when someone else talked in their ear.

“_I’m cooomiiing..._”

V tensed, and so did Nero next to him. He subtly looked towards the entrance. It didn’t take much to recognize [Malphas](https://image.freepik.com/free-photo/elegant-gothic-brunette-woman-with-red-lips-black-suit_149155-2520.jpg), since the tall woman stood over the crowd. Malphas and him had agreed on avoiding as much contact as possible during the operation in order to difficult the job of the police as much as possible when the theft was discovered, though the actual motive was that, that way, V and Nero could coordinate better with the rest without worrying about accidentally mixing communication channels.

“_I presume that that handsome boy next to you is your acquaintance?_”, the woman commented while pretending to be talking on her mobile, examining at the same time one of panels situated at the entrance.

“Yeah, it’s me”, Nero answered instead, adopting a tone that was quite smugger than his usual one, “and thanks for the compliment. You’re also hotter than V had commented.”

V was unable not to throw Nero a look while Malphas laughed.

“_You seem a little nicer than Mr. V. I wouldn’t mind to get to know you better during the after party._”

“It doesn’t sound bad: will your sisters join too?”

V gritted his teeth when hearing the interchange. He knew that Nero was just sticking to the personality Nico had assigned to him, but hearing him flirt with _Malphas_, even if it was fake, wasn’t what he would call pleasant.

“My apologies for breaking the moment but I presume those sisters know what they have to do?”

They reviewed for the following minute their respective tasks to be sure everyone knew what to do (and to put an end to that ridiculous conversation). Malphas was the first in walking towards the second-floor stairs, winking at Nero in a seductive way when passing by their side. Needless to say, Nico had access to all the Museum cameras, which would allow them to watch over Malphas. Regarding the other two sisters, some hours remained until they made apparition, so up till then the only thing they could do was to wait and observe.

“Alright, see you during the coffee break.”

“Okay”, V was about to also leave the entrance when Nero grabbed his arm, “and don’t worry, V: if I touch that old hag it would only be to handcuff her.”

The thief hadn’t expected that Nero noticed his jealousy, which made him snort softly before smirking playfully.

“And here I was thinking that I was the only person you’d ever want to handcuff.”

The previous horrible flirting with Malphas was worth it for the way Nero gulped at that moment, clearly remembering their first night together.

“_Uhm...guys, you know we can hear you, right?_”, V did remember, but Nero’s mortified face told him he didn’t, “_kid, breath: Verg won’t be on again until this afternoon._”

“_So don’t worry, lovebirds: you can flirt at ease in the meantime._”

“_Yes yes, don’t spare **any **details about handcuffs and all the dirty stuff you guys do._”

“LIKE HELL.”

V was about to laugh together with Nico and Lady when Nero answered with so much emphasis that some people turned to look at him. Once Lady and Nico finally stopped torturing Nero with their comments, they finally went separate ways, the mood getting serious once again because, finally, the operation was starting.

* * *

Even if attending lectures was a mere excuse so that Nero could pay attention to the guards of the museum, he still retained a huge amount of useless information that he _really _hoped wouldn’t overwrite what he had been studying for the detective exam. Because certainly, knowing how to differentiate positive demonic vibes from negative for a proper invocation was something his brain definitely didn’t need to retain.

Around 12 p.m. the conference happy hour finally started. He returned towards the first floor, entered the area reserved for the conference attendants only, and approached one of the tall tables where appetizers were beginning to be served. Nico had already warned V and him that she had detected someone else interfering with the cameras and security system of the place, which indicated that one of the other sisters (that they called Malphas 3) was already watching over the place.

The fact that now Malphas 3 was doing the same job than Nico forced this one to be extra careful with the camera control not to be detected by the other woman. The same way Nero and V had to limit themselves to only listen to the van team, not wanting to risk that Malphas 3 discovered them talking with someone that wasn’t them. They had already foreseen that something like that would happen, but still the officer found himself biting his tongue not to talk to the others and contact with V instead.

“I’m already in the appetizers area”, he commented, “how are you doing?”

“_We’re in our way”, _V said, “_as we supposed the top floor is the one with more security, how about your floor?_”

“One guard per room and two per elevator, including this room, although I guess this will change soon.”

“_Oh, be certain it will”_, it was Malphas the one who talked, _“have you got in touch with our little mole?_”

Nero was about to answer negatively when suddenly someone talked close enough to him to startle him.

“Would you like something to drink, sir?”

He turned to his right, his eyes opening more for a moment when seeing Malphas (_another_ Malphas, that by elimination was Malphas 2) dressing as a waitress and carrying a tray full of drinks.

“Yes”, Nero answered, to both the woman and to Malphas 1. If there was something to differentiate the sisters, Nero didn’t know what the hell it was. They were like two drops of water, and the only reason why they had agreed to have two of the triplets inside was the fact that people didn’t use to pay attention to the service staff. That, and also the fact that the sisters had experience in concealing their presence: not even Nero had been able to detect the woman’s presence even if he knew she would be around.

Malphas 2 offered him one of the glasses together with a napkin. Her eyes signaled the piece paper before proceeding to serve other guests, so Nero opened it in order to read its content. A single ‘_everything is ready_’ was written on it, which made Nero’s heart skip a beat because it meant that, soon, it would be his turn to act.

He had barely stored the napkin in his pocket when, exactly at 12.15 p.m., a ‘_CLANK_’ was heard in the room, together with some shocked shouts sounding from some point at the other side of the elevator.

Automatically, the guards standing on either side the elevator got in alert and talked through their walkies, while the whole room focused on the elevator due to the ‘_We’re stuck!_’ cries that sounded from inside.

“_Damn, you’re missing quite a good show, kid._”

Nero knew, but he could enjoy the end of it when after some stressing seconds, the door of the elevator opened and several people stomped on the room safe and sound. Some looked relieved, some looked a little scared, but the vast majority were quite angry.

“Oh my god, I thought we wouldn’t get from that alive”, a really outraged Malphas 1 was exclaiming, fanning her face with her hand as if she was recovering from a big shock, “what kind of maintenance do you carry out? This is unacceptable!”

“Yes, she is right!”, an old lady was also saying while shaking her even older husband with an effusiveness that for sure wasn’t recommendable for the man’s age, “my husband is claustrophobic. What if we had ended stuck there?”

“Are you aware that this is motive of denounce?”, V, who also happened to be in the elevator, was saying with an arrogant tone that made the image of Vergil appear in Nero’s mind for a moment, “could you contact with your superior?”

“Yes, call your superior!”, another man demanded, spurred on by V’s suggestion, “he should know that one of your installations almost kills us!”

The discussion kept for another good five minutes, and Nero couldn’t help to feel a little bad for the guards who were forced to profusely apologize to the people that Malphas and V had manipulated while being ‘stuck’ in the elevator, thanks to Malphas 3 who had managed to remotely access the controls of the device.

Eventually, another two employees of the museum appeared. After apologizing to the enraged people, they assured them the price of the ticket would be returned, and also gave them a free meal in the (expensive) museum restaurant. The compensation seemed to be more than enough because the people stopped yelling and abandoned the area with haughty faces that showed the guards were lucky for their comprehension. Malphas disappeared from the area in the direction of the second floor again, but V remained in the room. He approached Nero with a small grin while storing the ticket for the meal inside his jacket.

“Well, we already have plans for our second date.”

Nero rolled his eyes, but he was suppressing a smile when seeing the employees putting some yellow safety tape on the elevator to avoid trespassing it, in the exact way they had planned.

“I should be going”, V took his glass from his hands to take a quick sip continuing talking, “see you in 40 minutes.”

“Be careful”, some hint of concern escaped Nero when muttering those words, which caused V to bow his head a little with a reassuring smirk.

“Don’t worry, my loud guardian angel has never failed me.”

Nero felt more relieved when Nico confirmed such a thing with a confident tone. Once V took his leave, he still remained in the room for some moments before following the rest of the attendants towards the main auditorium situated in the second floor. He saw Malphas 1 sitting in the front row, extremely close to the main table where the Spiritism session would take place there.

“Seriously, how damn much the conference had to pay to the museum to use this room in _that _way?”, Nero heard Lady say in astonishment, something he himself had wondered while observing the lady dressed with a pythoness attire while preparing the materials for the session, which would be the main activity of the first day of the conference.

He had to make an effort not to look like a complete skeptic (even if he was) not to stand over the other enthusiastic attendants while approaching the third row of the room. He had taken a seat when Malphas 1 turned around to throw at him a conspiratorial look that he answered with a wink, making the woman’s smile widen before turning her attention to the front. Nero couldn’t help to think that it was a pity that V wasn’t there, since the thief getting jealous with no reason was rather funny.

The moment the lights turned off though, Nero focused exclusively on the mission, not letting any unnecessary thoughts to distract him. The pythoness devoted the first ten minutes to purify the area with some kind of spells whispered in a strange language (which was surely invented, Nero couldn’t help to think with certain cynicism). Then, the woman spent almost an entire minute in silence, in order to ‘tune in’ and ‘reach’ the spirits she was going to enter in contact with. And then, after another ten minutes of the woman making the attendants join her prayers, she announced the moment to talk to the ‘other side’ had arrived.

“_Be ready to play the hero, boy”, _Malphas 1 muttered with amusement, a mere second before she exhaled a loud, shocked gasp that provoked the pythoness to abandon her praying posture and open her eyes to look at the woman.

“Is something wrong, dear?”, the woman asked with concern, the people next to Malphas separating a little from her when this one placed a hand against her chest as if she was suffering a heart attack.

“My body…”, Malphas 1 said with a voice that sounded credibly painful, “...I think something is trying to possess me…”

The word ‘possess’ was the trigger so that a murmur half scared-half excited spread through the room. Several people stood on their seats to take a better look at what was happening, and when making sure that she had the whole audience focused on her, Malphas collapsed forward on the floor and began to spasm sporadically.

“_Well, she’s a good actress, we have to give her that_”, Dante commented, and Nero had to agree, thinking that the sight of a possessed Malphas was quite creepy.

The pythoness, quite in shock, approached Malphas 1 and knelt next to her while babbling a rather unconvincing ‘_L-Let me handle this!_’, as the crowd approached to better witness the scene though without making any attempt of actually helping. Nero made the most of the rising confusion to announce a loud ‘I will ask for help’ before leaving the room.

Once outside, he quickly approached the security guards which were guarding the corridor. He pretended to be extremely affected, gesturing a lot towards the main auditorium until the two men abandoned the area. He waited for Malphas 3 to confirm that the camera of that corridor wasn’t facing the elevator which had previously ‘broken down’ to call it. When the doors opened, he rapidly passed under the tape in order to snap the button of the first floor.

When the door of the elevator opened again, Malphas 2 was at the other side, still dressing as a waitress but now carrying a bussing trolley covered in a tablecloth. Nero rapidly raised the tape so that she could rapidly enter with the trolley, and then pressed the button of the first basement, at the exact moment that V asked about their situation.

“We’re on our way”, he answered while Malphas 2 crouched in order to extract a big sport bag that she had concealed in one of the shelves.

“Good coordination”, Malphas 2 commented in a tone that was quite more inexpressive than her sister’s one. The elevator stopped at that moment between the first floor and the basement, moment in which Nero stepped on the trolley while Malphas 2 kept it still in order to exit the elevator through the emergency hatch of the ceiling.

He slipped through it, stepped on the elevator ceiling, and grabbed the rope Malphas 2 passed him through the hatch. He exhaled a long sigh, removed his jacket to end in his short-sleeved t-shirt, and after dropping the clothing inside the elevator he began to crawl inside the air duct Nico instructed him, in order to finally meet with V.

* * *

When V parted ways with Nero after the small ‘show’ in the elevator, V went directly to the men’s restroom of the first floor. One of the reasons why they had decided to start with the theft at noon was that most part of the people would be stopping for lunch, and consequently the main areas of the museum would be considerably less crowded. Also, he had coordinated with Malphas 2 so that the woman placed the ‘wet floor’ sign that she had confiscated outside the restroom, after V verified he was alone inside it.

The thief went directly to the disabled stall, closed the door behind him and checked the waste bin inside, where Malphas 2 had introduced a backpack while she was ‘on duty’ cleaning the restrooms area. The bag contained the utils they were going to need soon, so during the following 25 minutes and thanks to the nano camera Nico had installed in the necklace he was wearing, the hacker instructed him to assemble and program the different devices.

Once they were ready, V put the backpack on, stepped on the toilet in order to check the panels of the ceiling, and searched for the one which was easier to remove. He slid the panel outside with some difficulty, propped himself up inside after pushing the bag first, and carefully began to crawl through the quite narrow space until reaching the air ducts.

“I’m going towards the meeting point”, V announced some minutes later, stopping in an area that at least allowed him to raise to his knees for a brief rest, “how are you doing?”

Nero answered almost immediately, and just another couple of minutes later he was already hearing Nero’s labored huffs coming from one of the air ducts. A small smile escaped V when hearing Nero’s curses getting clearer until finally Nero’s head appeared through one of the ducts.

“Hey there”, V greeted him playfully, helping Nero to kneel too next to him. The duct crossroads wasn’t especially big, so there was barely space between their bodies as they kneeled in front of each other.

“Shit, now I know why the hell you’re so skinny: it’s fucking needed for this kind of work.”

V chuckled at Nero’s breathless comment.

“Well, certainly it has its advantages”, he agreed, gesturing towards the middle air duct that waited for them, “are you ready to continue or you still need to rest?”

Nero took a deep breath and nodded once with determination.

“I’m good, so lead the way.”

V playfully mimicked Nero’s nod, but instead of continuing crawling inside he opened his bag in order to extract a familiar mask.

“I thought you had lost it.”

“And I did, but Nico bought it again”, he adjusted it to his face, “_now_ I’m ready.”

It didn’t take him much to reach their destination: an air vent that directly connected with the [visible storage](https://www.spacesaver.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cultural-museum-visible-collection-storage.jpg) room of the museum.

The item they were going to steal was inside, but accessing it directly was impossible: after a lot of study on Nico’s part, they had decided that the only way to sneak inside was to directly hack the tactile panel outside the door, since deactivating the alarms in any other way would have taken an extra week they didn’t have.

The place where V and Nero had ended was exactly over the reception table where a security guard was keeping watch. After interchanging a glance, Nero carefully removed the vent under them while V extracted the tranquilizing weapon he had mounted in the bathroom. He made a clean shot, hitting the guard on the shoulder and causing him to fall instantly unconscious on his chair.

“Well, that was easy”, with Nero’s help he slid down to the floor and grabbed the bag the officer passed him, “see you at the other side.”

Nero muttered a new ‘be careful’ that made V smile for the excess of Nero’s concern. He approached then the tactile panel. While Nero informed both the van team and Malphas of their situation, he removed the small dart from the unconscious guard, turned the camera of the room off by using the control panel of the table, and approached the tactile panel next. He extracted the mobile Nico had programmed in order to allow her direct access to the storeroom. After two extremely long minutes, the panel screen turned green and the door opened with a soft beep.

V rapidly slipped inside. He moved through the shelves until stopping in the one that they needed to force open: the one containing the Devil Sword Sparda, a weapon that (supposedly) had belonged to a powerful demon, and which God knew why Malphas was eager to have in their power.

The sword was, as lack of a more proper word, massive. In fact, V was quite sure that most part of the people would be unable to wield it in case of being in one piece. Fortunately, time had affected the weapon who had ended broken in several smaller, more manageable pieces.

“Hey, V.”

The thief frowned when hearing Nero calling him from almost the other side of the room.

“Are you sure you are going through the duct Nico marked you?”

Nero snorted at his suspicious tone.

“Obviously not, but guess what? The other vents are blocked and I can’t go through them.”

“_What? But that can’t be!”, _the hacker exclaimed, “_I studied the plans thoroughly!_”

“_Maybe there was a last-minute reparation that wasn’t indicated in them, love._”

“_Fuck, I hate when people don’t take their job seriously. I’m sure an idiot forgot to fill a report in time and **that**’s the result._”

“_W-Well, sometimes people has so many reports to fill that sometimes__—_”

“_Mr. Vitale, Nero, can you still keep with the plan despite the inconvenience?_”

V was surprised when suddenly hearing Vergil at the other side. He sighed, thinking rapidly about his options. Due to the considerable weight of the sword, they had initially planned that Nero lifted the different parts of the sword little by little, storing them in the bag while being up on the duct. However, considering the size of the room and the duct location, that method would take way more time than estimated. He was still thinking about an alternative plan to carry the sword when, suddenly, Nero jumped on the floor and rapidly approached him while wearing the sport bag.

“We can”, Nero knelt on the floor next to V, who had stopped working on the shelf door to look at the officer, “we just have to carry it in one go.”

“In one go?”, V repeated, “Nero, do you know how much this thing weights?”

“Yeah, and I can do it”, V was about to protest again but Nero’s determined tone made him keep quiet, “you focus on opening that door and leave the sword to me, okay?”

The combination of Nero sounding so commanding while participating in an illegal act forced V to swallow thickly and shake his head to focus on his task at hand, instead of the imperious, inopportune necessity of tackling Nero against the floor.

Once the shelf was opened, it only took Nero some seconds to store the different pieces inside the bag. After that, V was expecting that Nero slid the bag through the floor towards the duct, so his eyes opened wide when Nero hanged the bag on his shoulder with way less effort that he was expecting. Taking it to the duct was another thing though, and for some seconds V really feared that the duct gave up under Nero and the sword’s combined weights, or that a vein exploded in Nero’s biceps, extremely tense for the effort of lifting it freehand.

At the end his fears were unfounded, and the sword reached the upper duct safe and sound.

“_Damn, he’s a beast_”, Nico said after whistling, impressed, “_I bet he can lift you with no effort, huh?_”

V took a mental note of killing Nico, because thanks to her now his mind was full with the previous night third round, that hadn’t taken place precisely on the bed but against the shower tiles.

He was about to accept the hand Nero was offering him to go up when the beeping sound of the glassed door opening sounded.

They both froze for a moment, but V reacted in time by hiding behind the shelf. Apparently, the darts that Malphas had bought weren’t as powerful as the ones Nico usually bought, because the room visitor was no other than the security guard who apparently had decided to check the place after having ’fallen asleep’.

“_Guys, is something wrong?_”

Neither V or Nero were in position of answering Dante, especially V who began to slowly walk to the opposite side of the room when hearing the guard approach. The possibilities of the man discovering the missing sword were scarce, since the vigilant had no special idea about the goods stored and the shelves were quite crowded, so the missing item should go unnoticed.

The problem was that the camera wouldn’t be off for much longer, which also discarded the option of shooting him again, and Nero couldn’t also move as long as the man was checking the room, since the noise could easily alert him. Their only option was to attract the man to the previous room and rush to where Nero was, but how to do that, V wasn’t sure how.

At that moment the security guard talked through his walkie, and an idea came to his mind. He couldn’t risk to talk to the others, but he still had with him the mobile Nico had fixed, so he quickly texted her.

“_Oh shit, I’m on it right now!_”

In a few seconds the phone at the other side of the room sounded, making the guard inside the room exhale a curse. V moved in time again to avoid the guard as this one rushed towards the previous room, approaching the duct to, this time accept Nero’s hand so that the officer lifted him.

“Fuck, V, I almost suffer a heart attack”, Nero exclaimed when they were both kneeling on the duct, “damn, are you okay?”

V still felt his heart racing a little for the adrenaline of almost being caught, which mixed with Nero’s proximity caused him to lean forward in order to open-kiss Nero. It was obvious that Nero wasn’t expecting such an effusive answer, but far from pushing him away he removed his mask in order to better kiss him back with abandon.

“_Guys? Guys?! Are you both safe?!_”

Nero rapidly separated from him to mutter a light guilty ‘_Y-Yeah, we’re good_’, while V suppressed a small chuckle before answering.

“Thank you, Nico. You called just in time.”

The woman exhaled a relieved ‘_thank goodness_’ while the others also exhaled relieved sighs.

“_In that case I assume it’s not necessary to remind you not to waste unnecessary time there._”

By basing on Vergil’s tone and the way Nero gulped before answering with a hurried ‘_No, sir_’, it was evident that the Chief was aware of their recent kiss.

“What a pity: just when I was thinking that spending some more time with your son in this duct was a wonderful idea.”

Nero hit V in the arm with mortification, but the thief couldn’t help to smirk when hearing Dante barely suppressing a laugh at the other side together with Vergil’s intake of breath. It was evident that the Chief was going to say something threatening as an answer (as usual), so Nico rapidly intervened.

“_By the way, guys, if you’re gonna meet now with the three Malphas I think it’s better if we cut communication on this side, just as precaution. We still have V’s camera and GPS to know where you are, so there’s no risk of losing you._”

“Roger”, Nero said before they both cut communication. The officer exhaled a sigh and glared at V, “and you, stop picking fights with my father already.”

“I will try”, he was about to enter through the duct but Nero stopped him, causing him to chuckle, “come on, don’t tell me you’re gonna make me promise it—”

But what Nero wanted to do was to kiss him again, slowly this time, as if savoring the moment, and V’s stomach clenched when they separated and Nero kept looking at him with intensity.

“I don’t know if we’ll have any time after this mission is over, so just in case we don’t have it…”, Nero took a deep breath, and then smiled sheepishly, “...I love you, Vitale. And whatever happens, I plan to wait for you for as long as it takes you to escape from prison, because I'm sure you will.”

V stared at Nero in disbelief, mouth and eyes opened in stupor because if there was something he wasn’t expecting was such a sudden confession.

“Nero, we had last night for ourselves.”

“I know.”

“And you had to wait until now to tell me this?”

Nero chuckled with certain embarrassment.

“Well, I planned to tell your when the mission was over, but seeing that you have been about to be caught, I preferred to tell you now”, he shrugged, helplessly, “sorry.”

A nervous laugh escaped V. He then shook his head, grabbed the back of Nero’s neck, and captured Nero’s mouth again, trying to pour all what he felt towards the officer in that kiss.

“I’ll do my best so that you don’t have to wait much”, he promised, hoping that his way to look at Nero was enough to say what he still found difficult to put into words.

For the way Nero smiled before finally crawling inside the duct, it seemed that the officer had read the message, so V took a deep breath and followed Nero inside the duct, ready to live his last hours of freedom to the fullest.

* * *

Once they returned to the elevator where Malphas 2 was patiently waiting for them, they put V’s backpack on the trolley together with the heavy bag containing the sword. The moment they warned the other Malphas of the successful theft, Malphas 1 had already taken care of discreetly removing the yellow tapes of the elevators, so Nero, V and Malphas 2 could abandon the elevator in the main floor without major trouble.

When planning the theft, both teams were obviously reluctant to let any of the parts alone with the sword, so at the end it was decided to split the teams: Nero and V would go with Malphas 2 to the meeting point, sited in the outskirts of Red Grave, while Malphas 1 and 3 would join them an hour later, in order to remove any kind of relation between them.

Abandoning the museum with the sword was the easiest part of the plan. The surveillance of the previous day had allowed them to discover that the key hour to act would be between 12 and 1 p.m., since from that hour onwards the traffic increased spectacularly, so no one paid special attention to the eclectic group composed of V, Nero, and an already changed Malphas 2 when these ones went to the parking where the woman’s car was parked.

Unlike Malphas 1, Malphas 2 only talked when strictly necessary, so the woman kept silent during the whole trip, and also during the time they were parked outside the [building](https://assets.vg247.com/current/2019/03/dmc-5-secret-mission-3-2.jpg) where the interchange would happen.

Needless to say, Nero didn’t interchange a word with V either, but the closer the closer they were to the meeting hour, the tenser the situation inside the car turned. Nero was aware that his father, uncle and the others had their back covered, but it was his first infiltration mission and he couldn’t help to feel a little nervous, something that V must have noticed because eventually the man settled a hand on his bouncing legs, pressing it softly.

The action together with the reassuring look the thief threw at him was enough for Nero to calm down for the rest of the waiting, although the moment he pinpointed another car approaching, his nervousness came back at full force.

The second car, driven by Malphas 1, stopped a couple of meters from them. The woman stepped down the driver seat, waved her hand towards them, and approached the car alone, which made Nero suppress a frown while stepping down the vehicle with V and Malphas 2.

“I believe you have lost a sister during the trip, Ms. Malphas.”

Malphas 1 chuckled darkly.

“Oh, worry not, dear: she’s here.”

Malphas raised her hand at that moment, and Nero froze when seeing a red laser coming from the car and pointing directly at V’s chest. Such an outcome was something they had foreseen, but still he had hoped to avoid the worst-case scenario.

“Forgive my distrust, Mr. V, but I prefer to play safe.”

“Of course”, V said in an unconcerned tone, “I only hope that you plan to fulfill your part of the deal and give me the diary.”

Malphas chuckled again.

“Do not worry: the moment we verify the sword is in perfect shape, we will give you your book and we will take our leave”, Malphas 1 looked at Nero playfully while her sister went to the trunk in order to recover the bag, “you could accompany us though. We still have some spare hours until leaving the city, and you look quite funnier than your partner. No offense, dear.”

The last bit was addressed to V, who merely raised a hand to accept the apology. Nero managed to laugh quite credibly, while noticing that Malphas 2 was quite stronger than she looked, since she was carrying the heavy bag without much effort.

“It doesn’t sound bad”, Nero admitted, “although it depends on what my partner says. He’s the one who pays me, you know?”

Malphas 1 chuckled while her sister efficiently proceeded to examine the parts of the sword.

“Well, that can be easily fixed”, Malphas 1 approached Nero and slowly enclosed an arm around his neck, placing the other against his chest to rub it in a way that made Nero suppress the urge of tensing for the unwanted contact, “what if I match Mr. V’s payment and I give you a small extra of, let’s say, 10k?”

Nero really wanted to punch that pervert old hag, but while enclosing an arm around her waist she noticed the weapon she was concealing in her trousers’ pockets, so instead of pushing her away, he pressed her more against him.

“_Just_ 10k?”, Nero said with a fake offended tone, shifting his face towards Malphas 1 with a seductive smirk, “I think I’m more valuable.”

Malphas 1 hummed to herself to enclose her arms around his neck, while Nero placed his hands on her waist, just above her pockets.

“Well, why don’t you show me what you can do and I decide if raising the price is worth it, boy?”

Nero snorted, and then in a brusque movement he pressed the woman against the front of her car before kissing her brusquely, making her moan with excitation while Malphas 2 completely ignored her sister to keep examining the sword.

He could feel V’s icy glare on them as he attacked more than kissed Malphas’ mouth, and as much as he would absolutely prefer not having to do that, when he let the woman go he had managed to get what he was looking for, without anyone but V noticing it.

“So?”, Nero inquired, cleaning his mouth with the back of his hand to remove that sticky lipstick from his lips, “I think I deserve at least a 20k.”

Malphas chuckled while still being lying on the car, straightening her position next.

“15k for now, but I will consider raising it depending on your performance tonight.”

Nero offered her a satisfied smirk and pulled back to recover his position next to V. The thief hadn’t moved from his spot, but if glares killed, Malphas 1 would have been already dead.

“The sword is in perfect shape”, Malphas 2 announced then, standing up from the ground while Malphas 1 finished fixing her makeup.

“Excellent”, she pressed her lips together in order to fix her lipstick and after that she shifted her face towards her car, “I think you can bring the book, sis.”

Nero suppressed the urge of interchanging a glance with V when the one of the back doors of the car opened and, finally, the third Malphas appeared. Unlike her sisters, her hair was considerably shorter and she was dressed in a complete white suit. She approached them, carrying a briefcase in one hand and the weapon still pointing at V in the other.

“Is the gun really necessary? You have verified already that we haven’t tricked you”, V inquired with patience when the woman finally stopped in front of him.

“I’m afraid it is”, Malphas 3 commented, shaking softly the briefcase, “here you have your dear book as promised, so take it and leave with your lackey. We will leave once you are out of here.”

“Wait, I thought I could take him with me”, Malphas 1 protested, causing that Malphas 2 sighed again with resignation.

“That’s your problem for making a deal without consulting me first”, Malphas 3 commented without even sparing look at her pouting sister, “I must admit that working with you have been quite profitable, Mr. V, but if you know what’s more convenient for you, you will avoid contacting us from now onwards.”

V sustained the woman’s gaze and nodded, beginning to reach for the briefcase Malphas 3 was offering him.

“Do not worry, miss”, V’s tone gained harshness, “the deal is over now.”

The moment those words abandoned V’s mouth, several things happened at the same time: first, the door of the closest building snapped opened in order to show Dante and Lady exiting from it, guns in hand while pointing at the sisters; second, V rapidly made the most of Malphas 3 being distracted to use the same technique he first used against Nero when they met, in order to steal the weapon from her; and third, when Malphas 1 reached for her weapon, she discovered there was nothing in her pocket, since Nero had stolen it when kissing her and now he was the one who pointed at her with it.

“Okay, ladies, I’m afraid the show is over”, Dante announced while Lady called for reinforcements, “so raise your hands where I can see them and don’t move a muscle.”

Malphas 2 and Malphas 3 complied, but Malphas 1 simply laughed cruelly, mockingly beginning to walk towards Nero.

“Please, don’t make me laugh”, she offered Nero a disdained smile, “are you telling me that I should be scared of this child shooting me...?”

Nero didn’t hesitate in pointing at Malphas 1’s feet and do a warning shot between them, making the woman freeze.

“I won’t miss the next, you police murderer”, Nero snarled, pointing at her head while Dante approached Malphas 2, the most docile among the three, who had gone as far as kneeling with her hands raised, patiently waiting to be arrested.

“Listen to me, Mr. V, if you join us we can overpower them”, Malphas 3 said then with a perfectly calm tone, when Lady was about to approach her to arrest her, “I do not know what kind of forced deal you have with the police, but if you help us now, you won’t only keep the diary for yourself, but also would keep your freedom.”

V chuckled, without stopping pointing at her at any moment.

“My apologies, but the diary is already mine by doing this, and about the police, it turns out I may have developed some kind of Stockholm syndrome.”

Malphas 3 clicked her tongue.

“I see. In that case...”, Malphas 3 changed into a dangerous, “...I guess you don’t leave me any alternative.”

The fact that the woman hadn’t given any order or said anything suspicious provoked that neither Dante or him could react when Malphas 1 and 2 moved. Malphas 1 suddenly crouched and lunged against Nero’s legs, knocking him down and making him release the weapon. While falling forward, he heard Dante struggling, probably with Malphas 2 who suddenly wasn’t as docile anymore. He also heard a shot coming from Lady’s direction that, by basing on Malphas 2’ pained gasp, had managed to impact in her objective.

Nero tried to rapidly stand up, but a surprisingly strong grip on the back of his head and a knife against the side of his neck prevented him from doing it, since the blade was pressing against his jugular and a bad move could be quite fatal.

“Such a pity, puppy”, Malphas cruelly said from above, “we would have had so much fun together.”

He clenched his jaw in frustration. From his position, he could see that Malphas 2 had managed to recover his fallen weapon before Lady could shoot her again, so now some kind of pointing chain had been established: Lady was pointing at Malphas 2, who was bleeding from her shoulder while pointing at Dante, who was pointing at Malphas 1 over Nero. The only one who hadn’t moved was V, who hadn’t stopped pointing at Malphas 3 during the brief struggle.

“Alright, why don’t we try to reason like civilized people?”, Malphas 3 began to say with a conciliatory voice that didn’t match their situation at all.

“Well, we’ll do that when you order your bitch to release Nero”, Lady snapped, which only provoked Malphas 1 to chuckle.

“I cannot do that. It’s the only way so that this situation is balanced, but if one of you are kind enough to drop your weapons, I’m more than willing to order my sister to release the kid.”

No weapons were dropped, but somehow Nero felt that his uncle was really tempted to obey.

“Don’t listen to her, Dante”, he snapped, gritting his teeth when Malphas 1 increased the grip on his head, making a cut on his left eyebrow when it scratched against the asphalt.

Since the meeting point chosen by Malphas was so isolated, they hadn’t been able to risk having reinforcements there, since two of the sisters could have tried to escape in case of suspecting something. That was the reason why only Lady and Dante had been there as support. They had wrongly assumed that four on three would be enough to win against the triplets, but they had clearly underestimated them.

“On the contrary, don’t listen to _him_”, Malphas 3 rectified, addressing V next, “and you, Mr. V, I recommend you to reconsider my offer: if you stop pointing at me and choose to do it at that miss instead, I assure you that I will totally forget this small incident and you will be able to go with your diary and a little extra. It’s not a bad deal, isn’t it?”

“You could also conserve your little pet”, Malphas commented, mockingly rubbing Nero’s head, “if you help us with this, no one has to die: it’s a win-win situation for the criminal team.”

V chuckled at that moment, keeping his cool in a way that honestly impressed Nero.

“Well, I have a better deal, Ms. Malphas”, V answered in a cold tone, “since it’s a matter of time that reinforcements arrive, you could drop the weapons and accept your defeat with dignity, instead of gaining _even more _years of prison for executing an officer.”

At that moment, several police sirens were heard in the distance, mere meters away from them, but even if all the Malphas were being pointed at, it didn’t feel as if they were winning at all.

“Well, considering we have more than a thousand years accumulated for all our victims…”, Malphas 3 smiled cruelly, “...I’m sure you know what we’re going to pick.”

People say that when you’re about to die, you see your life passing in front of your eyes, but when feeling the knife separating from his neck surely to dig in him in a mortal stab, Nero didn’t see anything. However, he _heard _several shots sounding at the exact same time, two of them exactly over him.

Immediately after that, Nero felt Malphas 1’s body dropping on the ground next to him while releasing the knife, allowing him to kneel down in time to see Vergil, gun in hand, approaching him with a deathly serious expression in his face.

Nero barely realized that reinforcements had finally arrived and that several officers were reducing the other two triplets. He was still in shock when Vergil helped him raise him to his feet.

“Are you hurt?”

Nero gulped and shook his head, the expression Vergil was displaying making him remember that day so many years ago, when his father found him after he was kidnapped by that cult.

“No, the knife only grazed me.”

Vergil exhaled a deep breath, turned to look at Malphas 1 curled figure in the ground, and brusquely forced the woman to end face up in the ground with his foot, making her exhale a pained gasp. The woman had been shot twice: one in the shoulder and another in the chest, presumably by both Dante and Vergil, and it didn’t take Nero much to deduce who had been the one in delivering the probable mortal blow.

“That’s for touching my son.”

Vergil delivering that sentence in such a cold voice made Nero gulp, debating himself between thinking a terrified ‘_My father is scary as fuck_’ or an impressed ‘_My father is cool as fuck_’.

When Malphas 1 was taken by a couple of officers, his eyes finally shifted towards V. The thief was leaning against the car, breathing with difficulty and looking even paler than usual. He gulped, not knowing very well what to do with his father standing there, but Vergil surprised him by muttering a resigned ‘_Go_’ that he proceeded to quickly obey.

Nero approached V, stopped next to him as if giving the thief the chance to decide what to do, but when seeing that V still looked about to collapse, he carefully hugged him.

V didn’t respond immediately, but when he finally did it, it was to enclose his arms around his body tightly, with a desperation that took Nero by surprise.

“Never do that again”, V hissed in an angry, slightly trembling voice, “_never_.”

Nero couldn’t help to smile at V’s choice of words, realizing then that all the calm V had displayed before was a facade, and that surely the man had been scared shitless for him.

He was about to say that ‘being about to die’ wasn’t something that he liked to particularly do, but he eventually chose another sentence.

“Okay, okay: I won’t ever kiss someone else again.”

V laughed tremblingly, and allowed Nero to separate in order to passionately kiss, not giving a damn about what the other people of the force could say about it. They had just stopped kissing and were hugging tightly again, both of V’s arms enclosed around his neck, when at that moment Nico’s van suddenly stomped in the scene, miraculously avoiding all the other cars.

The door of the vehicle snapped opened and Nico exited from it, muttering a non-very-apologetical sorry before hurrying to their side in order to hug them both tightly.

“Holy fuck, I was so scared for you two, idiots!”, she exclaimed with a high-pitched hysterical tone, “goddess, that diary better be worth at least 2000 million dollars to compensate my fucking stress, dammit!”

Nero was pretty sure that Nico shouldn’t be shouting that in such a way, but maybe it wasn’t the best moment to point that out. He had just separated so that the woman could properly hug V when Lady approached him with a tired, but playful expression.

“Hey, don't wanna cut the romantic moment, but maybe you should go to see your uncle, since he’s been shot and all that.”

“WHAT?!”

“Hey, relax, it’s nothing serious: that bitch’s bullet only grazed him. Jeez, do you really think I would deliver the news so happily if he was actually in danger? I’m not that cold-hearted, man!”

Nero rapidly followed Lady towards the ambulance that he hadn’t even noticed it was there, feeling more relieved when seeing an injured but definitely okay Dante lying on a stretcher. Trish was sitting next to him, and when seeing that the woman didn’t look concerned in the least, Nero decided there wasn’t a reason to worry.

“Oh, look who has deigned to visit his dying uncle”, Dante teased, causing Trish to sigh with patience.

“Don’t listen to him, sweetie: it’s just a scratch.”

“Damn, babe you could have helped me to give it some dramatism, you know?”

“Oh please, I bleed more in my period.”

“LADY.”

“What?! It’s the truth! I’m sure it’s the same for you, Captain!”

Nero was barely suppressing the laughter at the mortified face Trish was showing when Vergil approached the back of the ambulance as well, only to click his tongue at his injured brother.

“Let me remind you that Morrison survived a bullet in the chest: it will be terribly disappointing if you died for this.”

“Thanks, brother, I love you too.”

Seeing that everyone was good around there, Nero was about to come back to V when Vergil stopped him.

“Get that wound examined”, his father said in a tone that didn’t leave room for discussion, “and it’s an order, officer. I won’t allow that you get sick for an infection: there’s a lot of pending work to do in the office.”

Nero exhaled a reluctant sigh and nodded, allowing one of the health workers to examine his wound while hoping it was quick, because now that everything was over he was painfully aware that, in no time, V would be arrested, and he wanted to make the most of their last moments together as much as he could.

* * *

“...and that’s why you shouldn’t worry, man: I have the perfect escape plan that can be adapted to any prison you are sent.”

“Nico, do we really have to discuss this now?”

“Why not?! If we play our cards right, maybe I could set you free in one month at most! Though in order to do that you should memorize like a hundred of blueprints and— h-hey, boss, what’s up?”

V sighed when Nico ‘subtly’ changed the topic after Vergil approached them. Honestly, the last thing he wanted at that moment was to talk to the Chief: the unexpected confrontation with Malphas had been quite straining and the only thing his body was asking was to sleep to the next day. Preferably next to Nero, though he was aware such a thing would be sadly impossible in quite a long time.

“Ms. Goldstein, your vehicle is contaminating the scene of the crime, so I would appreciate if you could take it out of the way, please”, Vergil frowned when Nico looked at him her jaw hanging slack, “is something wrong?”

“You’ve said ‘please’”, Nico barked a laugh, “I _knew _you could be nice if you tried hard enough.”

V suppressed a smile when Nico left and Vergil was still trying to come up with a suitable remark. The man eventually sighed in defeat and without spelling a word leaned against Malphas 2’s car next to V. After a short, slightly awkward silence during which Vergil distractedly pulled the sleeves of his shirt up, the Chief talked with a voice that, as usual, didn’t betray his emotions.

“My men have checked that the sword is in perfect shape, together with William Blake's diary. Also, the three sisters are now into custody, ready to spend the rest of their lives in prison, so it could be said it has been quite a successful operation.”

“And don’t forget about The Poetic Burglar, whose arrest I’m sure will be announced in the following days”, V ironized, but to his surprise Vergil let pass the opportunity to boast about his capture, continuing talking after crossing his arms.

“There is something that I wasn’t expecting though”, Vergil suddenly looked at him with interest, “you had the chance to escape. In fact, you had _several _chances to make the most of the confusion to run away not just with the diary, but also with the sword, but you didn't.”

V looked at Vergil with surprise, not having expected the sudden analysis. He thought about his options to answer, and decided to go for the ambiguous reply while shrugging his shoulders.

“I guess I’m more well natured that people give me credit for, and teaming up with murderers is too much even for me.”

Vergil simply nodded thoughtfully at his sardonic answer.

“Well, I suppose that I must thank you for that. If you hadn’t gained time, or if you had decided to switch sides at the last minute, perhaps my son wouldn’t be alive now.”

V gulped with difficulty, remembering the way his heart had stopped when Nero was held against the ground, with that knife against his neck.

“In that case those triplets wouldn’t be alive either, sir.”

He wasn’t exaggerating, and the way Vergil’s eyes shined at that told V he was aware of it, and approved it.

The Chief averted his eyes to look in front of him again, and when opening his mouth it was to talk to himself, as if he was thinking aloud.

“You know, Mr. Vitale, there is _never _more chaos than after a multiple arrest. There are so many things to take care of that evidence usually ends missing, the scene of the crime is irremediably contaminated, and sometimes, certain suspects even manage to escape. Fortunately, I have sent Ms. Goldstein three streets down the road to avoid the second. I hope the woman is still there, waiting for further instructions.”

V looked at Vergil in mute astonishment, not sure if he was understanding what the Chief seemed to be implying.

At that moment an officer approached Vergil with the briefcase containing the diary. Vergil examined it, nodded towards the officer, and after dismissing the man he casually left it on the floor between V and him.

“Well, I should probably check on my wounded officers”, an incredulous, small smile appeared in V’s face when Vergil adjusted his tie and stopped lying against the car, ‘forgetting’ the briefcase there, “but before that, could you answer a last question?”

V met Vergil’s eyes and nodded.

“Given the circumstances, I think it is the least I can do for you.”

Vergil looked at him in silence for a moment before talking with an inquisitive tone.

“Do you love my son?”

V’s eyes opened almost at their maximum, since _that _was a matter he wasn’t planning to discuss, and much less with Vergil.

Automatically, his eyes were dragged towards the ambulance, where Nero was frowning and protesting while trying to escape from a nurse who insisted in keeping treating the wound of his eyebrow and neck.

A small smile escaped the thief, and after exhaling a sigh he decided it was a little stupid to keep denying the obvious.

“Yes, I do.”

Vergil looked then towards his son with an unreadable expression.

“Have you told him?”, V’s silence was enough answer, “then perhaps you should.”

V gulped softly, daring to adopt a teasing tone next.

“Does that mean I already have your blessing to marry your son in a future, sir?”

Vergil clicked his tongue loudly.

“Don’t push your luck, Mr. Vitale”, he warned, but the threat sounded quite half-hearted, and V would swear there was a hint of a smirk on the Chief’s face when he finally took his leave.

When being left alone, V took a deep breath, threw a last glance towards Nero, who had already stopped struggling to avoid having his neck bandaged, and after smiling with certain sadness he stopped leaning against the car, ready to fulfill Vergil’s petition for the first time without any reluctance.

* * *

“No, for thousandth time, it does NOT hurt”, Nero exclaimed, finally managing to scare the nurse away when this one insisted in also cure his eyebrow. He rapidly left the ambulance in order to approach the area where he had last Nico and V, just to discover there was no one there. In fact, the woman’s van had also managed to disappear at some point.

Nero frowned with confusion. He looked around for a bit, but when not seeing any trace of them he eventually approached his father, who had returned to his car with the intention of leaving. There wasn’t much remaining to do there after all, now that the triplets were already in their way to the Police Department, escorted by half-a-dozen of police cars.

“Hey, have you seen V?”, a sudden fear invaded him, “wait, don’t tell me you have arrested him already! Because I barely had time to say goodbye and—”

He was beginning to raise his voice with frustration when his almost forgotten phone vibrated in his pocket. Nero grabbed the device and frowned when seeing it was a hidden number call.

“I think you should enter before answering.”

Nero looked at his father without understanding, but when Vergil impatiently signaled the copilot seat he obeyed. Besides, it was hot as fuck outside, so he was considerably better sitting inside the perfectly acclimatized car.

“Who is it?”

“_It’s me._”

Nero exhaled a relieved sigh when hearing V.

“Damn, I thought you had been sent to the department already. Where the fuck are you?”

V chuckled at the other side.

“_I think it’s better if you don’t know that, officer. You won’t want to be involved in the escape of a criminal, will you?_”

Nero frowned.

“What?”, he froze, his heart beating hysterically while throwing a poorly subtle side glance towards Vergil, “uhm...so...so you mean that you…”

“_Relax, Nero: your father is aware of this._”

Nero blinked.

“He is?”

“_In fact, he’s the one who made it possible._”

“WHAT?”

“_Yeah! Your daddy is way cooler than we thought! He even fulfilled his promise of giving us the diary!_”

“_Nico, please, focus on the road: I don’t want to die._”

“_Jeez, okay, okay, I will let you talk with your Juliet._”

“But wait, I-I don’t understand, he let you go?”, Nero stared at Vergil in disbelief, “_you_ let him go?!”

Vergil looked at him with a perfectly composed, confused expression.

“I don’t know what you're talking about, officer, but if you keep sounding delirious, I will have to send you to the hospital with your uncle.”

Hearing V and Nico laughing at the other side made Nero exhale a shocked laugh before dropping against the seat, still not believing what was happening.

“Shit”, he gulped, exhaling another short laugh while feeling a stupid lump forming on his throat, “shit, V, I’m so fucking glad.”

His voice trembled a little at the end because of the relief, but if V noticed it, he was kind enough to oversee it when talking with a light sad tone.

“_I guess you are aware of this already, but probably it will take The Poetic Burglar a while to come back to Red Grave. There have been too many emotions there, and for sure he has to wait until things calm down a bit._”

Nero took a deep breath and nodded, realizing after a second that V couldn’t see him.

“Yeah, I know”, he gulped, “but I will see him again, right?”

He let out the breath he had accidentally held when the answer arrived quick and definitive.

“_You will._ _He has a pretty good reason to come back._”

Nero chuckled.

“You sure about that? I doubt there’s something else he wants more than that diary he already has.”

“_I can assure you there is._”

“Really? And what is it?”

“_You_”, Nero heart stopped when hearing V’s answer, only to beat faster again when V continued with a tone whose fondness couldn’t be hidden, “_it’s you, Nero. Until now, there’s no place I have ever visited without having something to steal, but now, even if Red Grave became the most abandoned city exempted of any valuable goods, you would be enough reason to make me want to come back. __So, even if it takes me a while to do so, please, make sure to wait for me. Because I wouldn’t like to have to rob the houses of the people you dare to date while I’m away, but be sure I will.”_

Nero began to laugh when V’s tone changed from almost poetic to deadly threatening.

“Don’t worry, I will wait. And in the meantime I will train to beat you in the next fight.”

V chuckled.

“_Well, if I were you, I would practice to set myself free from handcuffs, officer. You never know when such knowledge can come in handy._”

Nero snorted at the seductive tinge V’s voice adopted, hoping that the blush had stopped in his ears while remembering the heated promise V did to him the previous night.

“Okay, I will practice that too”, he agreed, his tone softening when talking next, “take care, Vitale.”

V’s smile could be heard in his next words.

“_You too, Nero. I love you._”

Nero had barely assimilated the last thing V said when he heard a loud caw coming from Griffon, and an excited ‘_Aww, you finally said it!!_’ coming from Nico before V hurriedly hanged up. Nero smiled widely, first for those words V had finally said, and second because for sure Nico would spend the entire trip teasing the thief.

The smile that the conversation put in his face lasted after separating the phone of his ear. He was in such a cloud after knowing that V was fine and free that he didn't remember that Vergil was just right there until the man talked.

“Everything good?”

Nero nodded shakily, gulped, and even if he knew it was probably a bad idea, he leaned over his father in order to half-hug him, making the man tense instantly as his eyes opened impossibly wide.

“Thank you, dad.”

His father didn’t move, standing immobile for some seconds before awkwardly patting Nero’s shoulder.

“You’re welcome”, Vergil cleared his throat when Nero separated from him, “but I hope you understand that if The Poetic Burglar comes back to Red Grave, I will _not _hesitate in sending my men to catch him. Bear that in mind.”

Nero laughed, and after drying his lightly bright eyes with the back of his fingers he nodded.

“Yeah, I know”, he dropped against his seat again, at the exact moment in which his stomach grumbled loudly, making the tip of his ears end red when seeing the way his father looked at him, “sorry, I haven't eaten anything since 8.”

He was expecting that his father mentioned his excess of appetite, but Vergil simply talked with a casual tone while finally putting his seatbelt on.

“Do you remember that restaurant you used to go in your birthday? Do you think it will be open now?”

Nero looked at his father in utter stupor.

“But I thought you hated that place.”

“Oh, and I do hate it”, Vergil smirked devilishly, “but Dante loves it.”

Nero began to laugh when hearing his father, easily picturing the face his uncle would make when learning he had missed visiting that restaurant for being recovering in the hospital.

“Yeah, I think it’s open”, he said, putting his seatbelt when his father started the car after putting his sunglasses on.

The car had barely begun to move when suddenly Lady appeared out of nowhere, forcing Vergil to step on the brakes to avoid running into her.

“Detective Arkham, if you want to die so badly you better not choose my car to kill yourself”, Vergil irritably said, causing Lady to join her hands together in an apologetic gesture.

“Sorry, boss, but I was wondering if you could give me a lift? The other cars are full and if you’re going to the Department, I need to go there to pick Lu up.”

“We weren’t going to the station, but you two could join us for lunch”, Nero smiled innocently at Vergil when his father threw an unamused glance at him, “come on, Dante will be _even _more pissed off the more we go, right?”

Vergil tapped his fingers on the wheel thoughtfully and then tilted his head while nodding.

“You have a point there”, Vergil gestured inside with his fingers towards lady, causing the woman to exclaim a happy ‘woohoo’ while entering the car.

Nero was unable to stop smiling for the whole trip, seeing how Vergil was about to lose his nerve in a few occasions because Lady was unable to keep quiet to let him enjoy his old-fashioned music.

He knew that the wait until seeing V again would be tough, and he knew he would spend the following months staying tuned for any news remotely mentioning The Poetic Burglar.

He knew he would miss V. Damn, he was missing him already.

However, he also knew that the thief would fulfill his promise of coming back, and that as long as he kept working in Red Grave Police Department, with all that people who drove him crazy but that always supported him no matter what, the wait until seeing V again would be much more bearable.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Aaaand just the epilogue remains!! :DDD


	20. Epilogue

** _6 months later_ **

“...and, finally, the most important rule of all”, Nero stopped in the middle of the corridor and turned around to face the three new recruits he had been guiding around the police station, “‘what happens in the resting room, remains in the resting room’. So never, and I mean _never_, allow the Chief to discover that the camera of that place has been showing a static image during the past year, or you’ll have the death of at least half of the force in your conscience for taking improper naps. Understood?”

The newbies answered with a unanimous ‘_Yes, sir_’ that made Nero feel quite old despite the fact that he probably wasn’t much older than them.

“Okay, then that would be all”, he was about to cross his arms but refrained himself at the last moment, remembering that he had to watch his body language around the newbies so that they felt comfortable to make questions, “now, do you have any doubts before getting to work?”

The two male recruits shook their heads negatively, but the third one, a young woman who hadn’t stopped taking notes during the entire time, unnecessarily raised her hand to ask permission to speak, even if Nero had told her several times she didn’t need to do so. One of the two male officers exhaled a loud sigh when this happened, clearly annoyed for the woman asking again, so before focusing his attention on her, Nero offered the newbie a glare that had the man instantly remove his impatient expression from his face.

Nero solved the woman’s reasonable questions regarding the uniforms and work schedules before guiding them to the secondary office devoted to the newcomers.

“Thank you very much for all the advices, sir”, the woman said when her companions had entered already, talking next with a light apologetic tone, “and I’m sorry for making so many questions.”

Nero snorted softly.

“Hey, it’s your first day. It’s normal to have doubts”, he lowered his tone while subtly signaling towards the officer he had shut up before, “and if there is any asshole who bothers you for that or for anything else, don’t hesitate in using your five years of experience in boxing to your favor.”

After an initial moment of stupor, the woman offered Nero a bright smile before talking in a low, conspiratorial tone.

“I will make sure to be in the resting room if I need to do so.”

Nero nodded, satisfied with the answer. He then said goodbye to the newbies and abandoned the room. He had barely walked a couple of steps when Lady, who had apparently been looking for him, turned the corner.

“Oh, there you are!”, she placed her hands on her hips and smirked, “so, how did it go with your padawans, _detective_?”

He sighed when Lady spelled the last word with a lilting voice.

“Lady, it’s been two months since I was promoted, so you could stop using _that tone_.”

“Oh, I know, but I’ve seen how you _still _drool while looking at your badge.”

“_What_? I don’t drool!”

“Yup, you do. And as long as you keep looking like a kid with a new toy, I will keep calling you _detective_ in _this tone_~”

Nero rolled his eyes. He would like to say something to refute the woman’s words, but the truth was she may have a point. When receiving the notification of his promotion, his shout of happiness could be heard in the whole department, and probably also in the neighbor building. Also, although he was pretty sure he didn’t drool when looking at his badge, he definitely loved how it looked in his belt. He was still in that phase of spending some good minutes cleaning it before going to bed so that it shined, even if he would never admit such a thing not to get even more teasing from the others.

“So, did you want something or you just ‘happened to be free’?”

He made the quoting gesture in the last part to accuse Lady of being slacking off, a critic that the woman feigned not to catch to talk again with a cheery tone.

“I just wanted to check on you”, she walked next to him towards the main office, “did Allen behave? Lu told me before that she needed to catch his attention when showing the labs around.”

“Yeah, he’s the ‘I’m-the-best-and-I-know-everything’ classic jerk, but didn’t give me much trouble.”

“Officer Burton is a little shy but seems like a nice guy, although I think Charlotte is my favorite.”

“You mean officer Green? Yeah, she made the most intelligent questions, and for sure she can kick someone’s ass without trouble.”

“Yep, and in the top of that she is really pretty, don’t you think?”, Nero threw a look at Lady, who simply raised her shoulders defensively, “what? We all know you have a thing for redheads.”

“No, Lady, I _had _a thing for redheads.”

Lady chuckled, patting his back approvingly.

“Atta boy, being faithful no matter how many beauties are around”, her tone became more serious when talking next, “have you heard anything about him?”

Nero exhaled a long sigh and shook his head negatively.

“Only what appeared in the news about his last job”, by then they had already reached their workspace, so Nero dropped in his seat while Lady kept standing, leaning against his desk, “I guess he’s been busy keeping a low profile after turning Fortuna upside down.”

Lady nodded and then, suddenly, her eyes opened wide before tapping his arm repeatedly.

“Hey, do you imagine that he appears today!?”

Nero snorted loudly, sitting properly to turn his laptop on.

“I think you should stop hanging out with Patty. Her cheesiness is contagious.”

“Oh, come on, it would be _very _romantic”, Lady adopted a narrative tone while moving her right hand in a wide gesture in front of her, “just picture this: you and V, two protagonists belonging to completely different worlds...”

“For god’s sake, Lady…”

“...and who lived an impossible love story before being forced to go separate ways...”

“You wanna kill me of second-hand embarrassment, right?”

“...are finally reunited together in Valentine's Day, to spend a sleepless night of intimate...”

“If you complete that sentence, you’re dead. _I swear_.”

Lady simply chuckled at his threatening tone.

“I was gonna say ‘conversation’, you pervert.”

Nero huffed without believing her. He was about to gruffly type his username and password when Lady, who had separated from his desk, surprised him enclosing both of her arms around him from behind.

“Sorry, I guess that reminding you of your half-year of blue balls wasn’t the best move.”

“Lady, you’re making it worse.”

“But now jokes aside, I _really _have the feeling you’ll see him soon.”

Nero hummed unconvinced, throwing Lady a side glance.

“It’s one of your famous premonitions or what?”

“Yup, and you know I don’t usually fail”, she straightened her position but kept standing behind him to comb his hair, “so if I were you, I would have this mane cut just in case.”

Nero passed a lazy hand through his long, unruly hair after Lady separated from him.

“What’s wrong with it? Dante has been wearing his hair long since forever and you don’t tell him anything.”

“Yeah, but your uncle doesn’t look like a teenager with it.”

He would have offendedly protested for that appellative if the mentioned uncle hadn’t appeared at that moment from one of the lateral doors of the room.

“Okay, guys, wish me luck”, Dante sentenced with determination, approaching his desk to recover a small bottle of cologne from his drawer, “because today is, for sure,_ the day_.”

“We have heard that before”, Nero teased while seeing his uncle clearly overused the perfume in him, making Dante half-close his eyes at him before shaking his head.

“I’d threaten you with not inviting you to the event, kid, but unlike you, I’m a good person who wouldn’t leave someone out of a celebration.”

Nero groaned with exasperation when Dante’s tone turned accusing.

“For hundredth time, Dante, it was my father’s idea to go to that restaurant, _not mine_.”

“Yeah, but you went nevertheless, huh?”

“And so did Lady and Lucia!”

“Hey hey hey, leave Lu and I out of your family arguments.”

“And what’s worst: you allowed Verg to take that selfie after picking _my _favorite dish and sent it to _me _when I was recovering in the hospital.”

“Yeah, and for that reason we came back to that restaurant days after it to compensate you for it _and _invited you, so don’t you think it’s time already to get over it, old man?”

Dante grunted reluctantly, as if he still had trouble overlooking ‘Nero’s treason’, as the man called it.

“Give me some more time, kid. The betrayal is still recent”, Nero was about to snap it had been half a year since that, but his uncle’s wink told him the man had probably forgiven him already and was only teasing him as usual, “and now, wish me luck.”

He and Lady did so, following Dante with their eyes until he disappeared.

“I bet he screws it up again”, Lady rapidly said, making Nero bark a laugh.

“Sorry, I’m not gonna bet to lose.”

“Bet about what?”, Morrison inquired, after appearing behind Nero as silently as usual, his eyes showing light stupor, “wait, he is going to try it again?”

“Yep.”

“Jesus”, Morrison whispered after he and Lady talked at the same time, taking a seat at Dante’s empty desk, “well, after five failed attempts, maybe this time it's the good one.”

Morrison’s tone was as skeptic as the look Nero interchanged with Lady. They managed to stay put during the first 5 minutes, but when another 10 passed, the three of them stood up at the same time as if they had communicated telepathically.

“You know, for once I hope to lose the bet”, Lady commented with a light nervous tone, after they left the main room with everyone’s attention focused on them. 

They were about to reach the Captain’s office, with Nero regretting not having agreed to practice with Dante _even more _than he had already done, when Dante exited from it, looking quite pale.

“What’s wrong, son?”, Morrison rapidly said.

“I can’t find it.”

Nero’s eyes snapped wide when hearing Dante’s nervous tone.

“What?! But didn’t you have it with you?”

“Yeah, I did”, Dante hissed in a low tone while Lady facepalmed, “I had it in my pocket an hour ago when I went to talk to Vergil, but now when I was gonna reach for it, it was gone!”

“One last thing, Dante—”

Everyone outside the office jumped startled when suddenly Trish exited from her office, causing the Captain to exhale a soft gasp of surprise before showing a confused expression.

“Nero? Lady? Morrison?”, the fact that everyone looked as if they had been caught red handed while doing something _really _bad only increased Trish’s concern, “guys, is something wrong? If there is anything you need to tell me without Vergil knowing we can talk inside.”

“Dante.”

For second time, everyone outside the office, this time Trish included, was startled _again _when Vergil called for his brother while exiting his office, approaching the group then with a resigned expression in his face.

“H-Hey, hi again, Chief”, Dante greeted, being the first in recovering, “listen, if it’s about the missing hours of my last week, I promise I will recover them by the end of this month—”

“You’ve dropped _this _in my office.”

Nero didn’t know who was the most shocked when Vergil practically snapped a small box in Dante’s hand before everyone’s eyes. However, if he had to bet for someone, he guessed it would probably be his uncle, since the man looked completely frozen, the only part of his body who was moving hysterically being his eyes, shifting from the box, to Vergil and eventually to Trish, who also looked like an astonished beautiful statue.

During the following seconds no one said anything. In fact, no one even breathed. The only one who seemed completely calm was Vergil, who was staring at his brother with light impatience. However, the one who eventually broke the silence was Trish, in order to talk with a thin, incredulous voice.

“Dante...Is...Is that a…”

Her words seemed to finally wake Dante up, who exhaled a defeated sigh before barking a nervous laugh.

“Okay...uhm...this is _completely _different to what I had in mind, but here I go.”

Nero felt Lady’s fingers dig in his arm with anticipation while observing Dante kneel down in front of the completely astonished Captain.

“Trish, love, I know I’m several years late. Like, a bunch of years late. But even if it has taken me a damn lot to have the guts to do this...”, Dante opened the small box at that moment to show a beautiful golden ring, “...would you do this idiot the honor of marrying him?”

While talking, Dante was offering Trish one of his characteristic lopsided smiles, but his eyes and tone were serious and affectionate enough so that there was no doubt about his feelings for the woman. And for sure, that was the reason why Trish didn’t hesitate in bending down to kiss Dante intensely as an answer.

If his uncle and Trish had the intention of keeping their engagement behind closed doors, such desire didn’t last much, because the moment the woman muttered a happy ‘_Yes, I will marry that idiot_, both him and Lady shouted respective ‘_Woohoos_’ before beginning to applaud like crazy, which obviously attracted the attention of the rest of the officers, who rapidly approached to see what was the motive of the happy ruckus.

“Very subtle returning the ring, boss”, Nero heard Morrison say to Vergil between applause and applause, causing his father to click his tongue even if the ghost of a smirk could be seen in his face while looking at Dante and Trish still hugging, lost in their own world despite all the people surrounding them.

“It was taking my foolish brother a lifetime to propose, so I merely gave him a little push.”

Morrison shook his head with a resigned smile, but Nero couldn’t agree more with his father, and for the way Dante finally released Trish to hug his brother effusively, it was evident that the man had also appreciated Vergil’s unorthodox help.

* * *

The productivity of that Friday was even lower than usual after Dante’s proposal, but fortunately it seemed that Vergil was in a merciful mood and wasn’t _too _bothered by it. In fact, the Chief didn’t protest as much as everyone was expecting when Dante suggested to go that night to _that _restaurant to celebrate.

Still, Nero abandoned the police station quite late, since he remembered at the last minute that there was certain paperwork he had to leave ready for the next Monday, related to his new role as supervisor of one of the new recruits. The dinner had been reserved at 8 p.m., but he still had plenty of time to take a quick nap and a shower before joining everyone in the restaurant.

In his way home, he couldn’t help to notice all the pairs walking in the streets, ready to celebrate Valentine’s Day. He had never particularly liked that date, thinking it was a mere way to manipulate people to spend their money, but still the romance floating in the air made him regret V’s absence a little more than usual.

At least he wouldn’t be the only single in the dinner, since Vergil had stated in more than one occasion that he didn't plan to ‘ever sacrifice his freedom for anyone else’, and Morrison would be bringing Patty to the dinner. Speaking of which, Nero took an internal note _not _to sit next to the woman, since unlike the others she wasn’t aware of his peculiar romantic situation, so for sure she would try to flirt with him even more effusively than usual now that she had entered the adulthood.

It was almost 7.15 p.m. when Nero entered his apartment. Foreseeing that he would need to spend an (unwanted) sum of money in a suit for his uncle’s wedding, Nero decided to start saving from that night onwards by avoiding to turn the lights on unnecessarily.

He reached his bedroom without any problem, although when entering he tripped with one of his shoes. He kicked it under the bed with a curse, then removed his jacket, and crossed his arms to do the same with his t-shirt.

And then he felt it: _that _familiar presence who made his heart accelerate and his throat end dry.

“For being a cop, your house security is extremely poor, officer.”

When hearing _that _voice, Nero almost broke the lamp of his bedside table in his urge to turn it on. The light was super feeble because he always forgot he had to buy new light bulbs, but it was enough so that he could perfectly distinguish V leaning against the wall, dressed in complete black as usual, and displaying that satisfied, affectionate smirk he had missed so damn much during all those months.

“Although I guess that I should call you ‘detective’ now, shouldn’t I?”

During those months, Nero had been imagining in his head how it would be seeing V again, like the place where they’d meet, or the things he would say. He had come up with some pretty cool lines, all of them depending on the situation.

But at that moment, the only thing he could manage was to curse in disbelief before approaching V in a couple of long steps to capture his mouth in a fervent, passionate kiss that V met head-on. He hugged V tightly, and groaned against the thief’s lips when feeling the man’s arms enclose around his back, gripping him with the same urgency.

“You can call me the fuck you want”, he snarled against the thief’s mouth, making this one chuckle with amusement.

“I’m sure you will end regretting giving me such a liberty”, V ironically said against his lips, and even if Nero was about to seek the man’s mouth again this one pulled back a little in order to offer him a surprised look, “your hair is quite longer.”

“Yeah, it is”, he half-closed his eyes at V when seeing this one biting her lower lip clearly suppressing a laugh, “what? Do you also think I look like a teenager?”

“Well, you _do _look younger”, V’s smirk widened as one of his hands travelled up to tangle his fingers in his hair, “but I don’t dislike it. It will be easier to grab.”

Nero felt himself getting hard at that last comment.

He knew they had a lot to talk about, but at the moment the need of fully feeling V imposed over everything else. He heatedly pressed the man against the wall while beginning to pull at his black jersey. The violent action made the thief’s breath hitch. V locked their mouths together while obediently raising his arms over his head. Their mouths parted briefly so that Nero could remove both V’s jersey and t-shirt until ending naked from waist up. V walked him forward towards the bed, their kissing interrupted while more clothes were discarded on the floor.

“Hey, I know you wanted to tie me up and all that”, Nero said once he had V pinned against the bed with his body, just their underwear on, “but can we leave it for later? Because shit, right now I just want to touch you everywhere.”

Nero smirked when feeling the thief’s member hardening against his own. V licked his lower lip hungrily, placed his hands on Nero's underwear to begin lowering it, and purred the next words on Nero's ear, making the detective suffer a shiver from head to toe.

“How could I say no to such a tempting offer, _detective_?”

* * *

After six months of complete sexual abstinence, V had assumed that his re-encounter with Nero would be inevitable short, though for sure enjoyable. Therefore, he was quite proud of himself when he managed to push Nero towards the first orgasm of the night, with the detective eagerly mounting him on the bed, making it creak in such a way that V took a mental note of investing part of his latest earnings in another mattress for Nero.

After spending several minutes recovering while calmly making out, Nero suddenly made him turn around so that his back ended pressed against the detective’s chest. V moaned when Nero’s teeth grasped the side of his neck while teasing his nipples with his fingers. The feeling of the detective’s member, half-erect once again, insistently pressing against his lower back marked the start of their second round in that same position, with Nero propping his left leg up in order to thrust inside him with ease.

They tried to keep it calm this time, since the previous round had been rough enough already. They managed, somehow; for the first minutes at least. However, when Nero’s cock finally nudged against his prostate, V couldn’t fight back the urge of reaching back to tangle his fingers in Nero’s longer hair.

The forceful grip and the needy ‘_fuck me_ _harder_’ that unconsciously escaped V’s lips were the catalyst so that their slow love-making inevitably evolved into a wilder pace. Their tongues were still entwined when they reached their peaks for second time. Nero helped him reach his orgasm with languid strokes in his member that had V shivering from overstimulation in the detective’s arms.

Just then, while lying on the bed enjoying from the afterglow, V could finally make use of his mouth for something that wasn't to groan Nero's name.

“So... may I ask now... how have you been?”

Nero laughed with certain embarrassment at the irony present in V’s breathless question.

“Yeah, you can”, the detective kissed his shoulder briefly, “sorry, I didn’t let you ask much, huh?”

V chuckled, feeling tired but in an extremely good way.

“Don't apologize, Nero. I’m certainly _not _sorry about your way of welcoming me back”, V said with a contented tone, turning his body to be facing Nero while this one’s arm kept being around him, the sheets covering their lower bodies, “it seems that I wasn’t the only one feeling a little pent-up during these months.”

Nero chuckled again, leaning forward to kiss him once again.

“No, you weren’t”, Nero exhaled a long sigh while his thumb traced the tattoo of his hips without noticing, “I’ve missed you.”

V smiled.

“So have I”, he rested his hand on Nero’s one, “I’m sorry it took us more than expected to come back, but there were certain things we had to leave arranged.”

“And you managed?”

“Yes. It took a while, but we have erased all the rumors about The Poetic Burglar having been captured, and also about his implications in Malphas’ imprisonment. Also, there were some additional details to take care of.”

“You mean carrying out that crazy big theft in Fortuna to announce your comeback in style?”

V smirked proudly, because he could detect the admiration in Nero’s ironic comment.

“Well, last time we visited the city we were about to get caught, so acting there was a personal challenge for The Poetic Burglar. However, I was referring to the need of establishing a proper operation center to carry out our following jobs with ease.”

Nero frowned.

“But I thought you already had a place like that in Mallet.”

“Oh, and we still have it”, V’s tone turned casual as his fingers distractedly ran up and down Nero’s naked forearm, “but after talking about it, Nico agreed to leave that place as our secondary safe house so to speak, and carry out our activities in a more centric city.”

Nero didn’t react immediately, but when he did, his blue eyes opened wide in stupor.

“You mean you’re gonna stay in Red Grave?”

V’s smile softened at Nero’s expectant comment.

“I told you already I had a pretty sounded reason to come back, didn’t I?”

Nero exhaled an incredulous laugh.

“Yeah, to come back, not to _stay_”, Nero kissed him with brusque enthusiasm, making him sigh pleasantly during the kiss as the detective changed their positions to loom over him this time.

Already knowing that things were prone to escalate quickly when Nero kissed him like that, V pushed Nero back by placing the palm of his hand against his chest.

“It will still be complicated though”, he warned, “Nico and I will need to travel quite a lot, and depending on the job we have at hand, for sure we will need to disappear from time to time.”

Nero didn’t look the least taken aback for it.

“Yeah, I had figured it out already”, his tone turned slightly accusing, “but if I have to wait another six months for you, I hope that you keep more in touch.”

V chuckled with relief.

“I will. You have my word on that”, he accepted Nero’s slow, languid kiss before talking again with a playful tone, “oh, I almost forgot: happy Valentine’s Day.”

Truth to be told, V hadn’t planned to meet with Nero exactly that day, it just happened that way. He had the feeling that Nero wasn’t the kind in particularly enjoying that kind of celebrations, but the way Nero’s eyes opened wide before cursing loudly was perhaps a little exaggerated.

“SHIT.”

“Nero?”, V frowned when the detective hurriedly grabbed his mobile from the nightstand, cursing repeatedly again when seeing the hour, “what’s wrong?”

“Fuck, I forgot that I was supposed to meet with the others to celebrate that Dante and Trish are engaged.”

V’s eyes opened wide.

“And when did that happen?”, he inquired, also adopting a sitting position next to Nero while the detective approached the device to his ear.

“Today.”

V raised an eyebrow at the lacking explanation, and was about to remind Nero about the necessity of properly catching up when the detective began talking on the phone.

“Hey, old man! It’s me”, Nero made an apologetic grimace that was reflexed in his tone, “listen, probably we’ll arrive a little late, okay? So if you wanna begin ordering without us—”

At that moment Nero’s eyes opened wide, finally realizing something that V had already noticed, and that had caused him to smile with amusement.

“Who are ‘we’, you say?”, Nero looked at him hesitantly, “well, uhm...”

V didn’t have much trouble in taking Nero’s phone from his hands.

“Good evening, Dante. Congratulations for your engagement, by the way.”

He was forced to separate the mobile from his ear, because apparently the other attendants of the dinner were travelling in the same car and Dante’s shocked ‘_V?!_’, provoked Lady to exclaim a loud ‘_I KNEW IT!_’ that almost left him deaf.

Nero recovered his phone at that moment, and V spent some minutes enjoying how the detective had a lot of trouble dealing with his friends’ questions. The conversation finished with Dante reserving two extra seats so that Nico, who at the moment was in her apartment unpacking her things, could also attend the dinner. By when Nero hanged up it only remained 10 minutes until 8 p.m., so Nero practically bounced out the bed in the direction of the bathroom, followed close by V.

At any other moment, being together in the shower would have made them arrive _even _later, but they behaved so that the probabilities of Vergil reprimanding Nero for being late were reduced to the minimum.

While Nero struggled to find some clothes that weren’t in the dirty laundry basket, V called Nico to inform her about that night plans. The woman happily agreed to pick them up in their apartment. Knowing the woman’s way of driving, for sure the five minutes that should take her to arrive would become two.

“Well, I guess we’ll have to properly catch up later”, V said with irony when they were already on the street, waiting for Nico.

“Yeah, I doubt Lady leaves me alone for having been right in her hunch”, Nero said with a resigned tone before looking at V with a frown, “speaking of which, if you've arrived today, how did you know that I had been promoted?”

V gulped subtly. He should have assumed Nero would eventually realize the little slip, but he still tried to divert the topic with a joking tone.

“A thief never reveals his tricks”, he laughed at Nero’s deadpan expression, sighing before confessing the next part, “I may have spent some days observing you.”

Nero’s frown accentuated.

“And with ‘some days’ you mean…”

“...A week.”

Nero’s eyes opened more.

“A week?”, Nero opened and closed his mouth before signaling at him with an accusing finger, “you’ve been in Red Grave for _a week_?!”

“Alright, perhaps it wasn’t an entire week but six days, since Nico and I arrived quite late here so the first day should not count—”

“And why the hell didn’t you drop by sooner?”

V changed his weight from one leg to the other before bringing himself to answer.

“Because I wanted to be sure that you were still willing to keep going with this arrangement”, he admitted, averting his eyes to the side but still feeling Nero’s angry, inquisitive gaze in him, “I guess that a small part of me feared that you’d have decided that this kind of relationship would be unable to work in the long term. Six months is quite a time after all, so you finding someone else during my absence was within the realm of possibility.”

Nero exhaled a soft curse. He then changed position to step in front of V with his thumbs hooked in his pockets, not leaving him any option but returning his look.

“And what? Are you convinced that you’re the only distrustful jerk I’m in love with?”

V smiled fondly at Nero’s sarcastic comment, because there was an obvious background affection in the detective's annoyance.

“Yes, I am”, he grabbed the lapels of Nero’s jacket to drag the reluctant detective towards him, “and speaking of that, there’s something I still owe you to say.”

“You mean besides ‘sorry for being an ass and not coming to see you sooner’?”

“I love you, Nero”, the young man’s eyes opened wide at that, “I already told you when we talked the last time, but I never got to say you in person”, some light embarrassment slipped in V's following words, “I’m sorry it took me so much to properly express my feelings in these terms.”

After some seconds of silence, Nero's only reaction was to snort, but there was a wide smile on his face when placing his hands on his hips and resting his forehead against V’s, his previous anger completely forgotten after V’s confession.

“Apology accepted, Vitale. But still, you’re lucky that we have to go with the others, because otherwise I’d kick your ass to show you how much I’ve improved my combat skills while _waiting for you_.”

V chuckled at the detective’s threat and slid his hands up to rest them on Nero’s shoulder.

“I’m impatient to see you trying to beat me and failing once again, detective.”

V was pretty sure that Nero would have tried to fight him right there and then if at that moment a loud honk hadn’t sounded at the end of the street, announcing Nico’s arrival.

When the van stopped in front of them, V observed with an amused smile how the woman abandoned the vehicle to jump on Nero to hug him by hooking her legs around his waist, making him be about to lose balance and fall on the ground.

Of course, Nico also laughed at Nero’s hairstyle, and of course Nero sulked because of it while muttering he would have his hair cut that same Monday.

However, despite the back and forth jibs, and despite the continuous teasing present later in the dinner when they were hanging out with everyone, it was evident that, as impossible as it had seemed at first, they had managed to make their completely different worlds fit in.

So that night, with Nero sitting next to him on the table and while enjoying the stealing glances that promised a really long night when being alone again, V decided that it wouldn’t hurt that The Poetic Burglar took a little rest from acting in Red Grave: the city that had become his improvised home.

And if, someday, he found something that he couldn’t resist to get his hands on, he knew he would go after it with zero reservations, and that he could count on Nero to give his all to go after him. Because that’s who they were, that’s what they did; and because they weren’t meant to do things easy, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And with this, 'I Asked a Thief' comes to a (happy) end :))
> 
> Now for real, when writing that prompt in last year Inktober, I hadn't foreseen that this story would grow THAT much, and I'm very happy that most part of the people stuck around until the end <3 <3 So thank you VERY MUCH to everyone who left kudos and comments. I really hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I had fun writing it ^^


End file.
